


a heart full of love can't be hidden

by peachabalism



Series: Hogwarts AU [1]
Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: 2park is very very subtle but it's there if you squint a lot, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Attempt at humour, Fluff, Hogsmeade date, Hufflepuff Daniel, I'm Sorry, M/M, Pining, Slytherin Seongwoo, Underage Drinking, daniel is Cute, hp!au, i guess?, i tagged characters that had dialogue, it drags on a lot, jaehwan pines for minhyun, just a bit, most of the w1 members are mentioned at least once in passing, seongwoo drinks firewhiskey in this, seongwoo embarrasses himself, there's 2sung towards the end, there's a teensy bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-28 12:17:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12606444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachabalism/pseuds/peachabalism
Summary: 5 instances where Ong Seongwoo pines over Kang Daniel + how they finally got together + their first official date





	a heart full of love can't be hidden

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: there is a fair bit of cussing and a lot of word vomit so please proceed with caution; there are probably mistakes littered throughout as well so please forgive them.
> 
> Bolded parts are memories.
> 
> Also, I kind of condensed the Wanna One members' age gaps so they could all be at Hogwarts:  
> Jisung - 6th year, Hufflepuff  
> Sungwoon - 6th year, Gryffindor  
> Minhyun - 6th year, Hufflepuff  
> Seongwoo - 6th year, Slytherin  
> Jaehwan - 6th year, Slytherin  
> Daniel - 5th year, Hufflepuff  
> Jihoon - 4th year, Slytherin  
> Woojin - 3rd year, Gryffindor  
> Jinyoung - 3rd year, Slytherin  
> Daehwi - 2nd year, Slytherin  
> Guanlin - 2nd year, Ravenclaw
> 
> (Apologies for the minuscule number of Ravenclaws ;-; I hope you enjoy the story nonetheless)

_1._

 

Seongwoo let out a lovesick sigh as he stared at a certain 5th year Hufflepuff with pink hair. He was currently laughing at a joke one of his friends had made, his eyes crinkled into half-moon crescents and his adorable bunny teeth on full display. Seongwoo wondered what the joke was and how nice it would be to be the cause for that laughter which was like music to his ears.

“You know, I’m surprised that Daniel still doesn’t know that you like him.” Jaehwan plopped himself down next to Seongwoo and began to pile food onto his plate. “He’s surprisingly dense for a Puff – I thought Gryffs were supposed to be the thickheaded ones.”

“Hey, don’t say that about him.” Seongwoo shot a glare at Jaehwan as he prepared to go to war as part of the “Protect Kang Daniel” squad. He would allow absolutely no badmouthing of the love of his life from anyone – it didn’t matter if he and Jaehwan had been friends since they first sat in the same cabin in their first year on the Hogwarts Express. It was just like the Muggles said: “Hoes before bros”. Or was it the other way around?

“At this rate, you could strip yourself naked and sing a confession song to him on your knees with a rose in your mouth and I doubt he would get the hint that you’ve been in love with him for 2 years.” Jaehwan deadpanned as he buttered up a piece of toast and slathered an overload of jam onto it before folding it up and shoving it into his mouth. Munching down on it, he turned to look at Seongwoo who had _that_ look in his eyes. It was a look that Jaehwan was very familiar with and often dreaded.

“Oh Merlin no,” Jaehwan groaned after he swallowed his mouthful of toast. “What are you thinking of this time?”

“Strip… myself… naked…” Seongwoo repeated, almost as if he were under a spell. He looked at Jaehwan with the smile he always had when he was about to do something bound to give Jaehwan second-hand embarrassment. “Thanks for the idea!”

Then, he proceeded to pour pumpkin juice onto himself.

“Oh no!” Seongwoo exclaimed in a very loud voice, succeeding in his quest to draw as much attention to himself as possible. “Silly me! I’ve gone and spilled pumpkin juice on myself!”

Jaehwan scooted away from Seongwoo and placed his head down on his arms, pretending like he didn’t know who Seongwoo was.

Which was just as well since Seongwoo had started to strip.

“ONG SEONGWOO WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” A thunderous voice echoed from the teachers’ table. Seongwoo turned, in the middle of unbuttoning his shirt, and shot a mischevious grin at Professor McGonagall.

“I’m stripping, Professor!” Seongwoo replied cheekily, before continuing on with his task. Unbuttoning the last button, he shrugged off the shirt and threw it onto the pile of Slytherin robes he had shed earlier, revealing the abs that he had worked _extremely hard_ for during the summer break just so he could impress a certain someone.

Speaking of which, Seongwoo glanced at the Hufflepuff table and caught Daniel’s eye. Daniel squeaked and turned beetroot red, quickly averting his gaze onto his plate of food instead. The action was so cute that Seongwoo felt his heart melt into a puddle at his feet.

It was totally worth the 2 weeks of detention he would have to spend cleaning cauldrons in the dungeons.

 

 

_2._

 

Seongwoo had been waiting for the perfect time to use this trick. In fact, he had been waiting for over a month before he finally happened upon favourable circumstances. This trick was going to win Daniel over (finally) and make him fall head over heels for Seongwoo (Daehwi had guaranteed it).

Seongwoo creeped over to where Daniel was sitting alone at one of the library tables. He tapped the Hufflepuff on the shoulder, jolting him from the book he had been reading. Daniel looked up at him and smiled and Seongwoo stopped breathing.

It was just that Daniel was looking _extremely_ soft that day. He was wearing a pink oversized sweater since it was the weekends and there was a pair of gold-rimmed round glasses sitting atop his nose. This close up, Seongwoo could smell the faint scent of peaches that Seongwoo had grown to associate with Daniel and he could also see the mole underneath Daniel’s right eye – another thing that made Daniel so cute.

“…hello?” Daniel waved a hand in front of Seongwoo’s face, drawing Seongwoo out of his Daniel-induced trance. Daniel looked quite worried, his brows were knitted with concern. “Sunbae, are you okay?”

“Y-yeah, I’m fine.” Seongwoo shot Daniel a winning smile – the same one that all the girls fawned over.

“So, uh, did you want anything from me, sunbae?” Daniel asked, reciprocating Seongwoo’s smile with one of his own. Seongwoo felt his heart skip a few beats.

Then, he remembered the reason why he had gone up to Daniel in the first place. Seongwoo cleared his throat. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Madam Pince glaring in their direction, which did nothing to help calm his nerves. Well, it was now or never.

“Uh, I just wanted to tell you that I’m really glad I brought my library card because I’m checking you out.” Seongwoo mustered a weak smile, wondering what had happened to the burst of courage he had had earlier.

There was silence for a moment.

Then, Daniel burst into peals of giggles. He clutched onto Seongwoo’s arm as he did so and Seongwoo’s entire world halted. This was short-lived however, owing to Madam Pince that seemed to have decided that that was the last straw.

Moments later, they were outside the library, with Daniel still in fits of laughter. Seongwoo could feel his ego inflate with every giggle that escaped Daniel because- well, he was the cause for this melody! He had every right to feel proud of himself.

“That… that was funny!” Daniel gasped out as the giggles died down. The smile remained on his face though and it was then and there that Seongwoo decided he would do _anything_ if it meant that Daniel would continue to smile happily.

“I’m glad you liked it.” Seongwoo said ruefully. “Sorry I got us kicked out of the library though.”

“It’s fine, I was about to leave it just before you came over anyway.” Daniel brushed it off, still smiling his cute bunny smile at Seongwoo. Then, a look of realisation washed over him and he quickly glanced down at his watch.

“Shoot! I have to go for Quidditch practice!” Daniel exclaimed. “Sorry, sunbae, see you next time! Your joke was really funny!”

And just like that, Daniel was gone. Seongwoo stared after the direction he had gone, a lovesick grin on his face. He started walking back to his dorm, mumbling under his breath, “He found me funny… He found me funny… He found me funny!”

Merlin, Seongwoo was so whipped for Kang Daniel.

 

 

_3._

 

When Seongwoo sat down to breakfast on that particular Wednesday morning, he felt that something was off. His first instinct was to look over at the Hufflepuff table for the familiar pink tuff of hair – only to find it missing. His eyes roved over the students with their robes lined with yellow twice, both times yielding no results.

Kang Daniel was missing.

Well, he had probably overslept, but Seongwoo’s logical side of the mind has always been paid lesser attention to. Instead, he preferred to conjure up wildly ridiculous and absurd scenarios that had no basis whatsoever.

“Oh, where’s your loverboy?” Even _Jaehwan_ had noticed and that was truly an incredible feat – Jaehwan had the attention span of a goldfish and rarely paid any attention to details. Seongwoo would never forget how it took Jaehwan 5 years to realise that there were three moles in the form of a constellation on Seongwoo’s cheek. The audacity and nerve of him!

“I don’t know.” Seongwoo responded curtly, pouting even as he took a mouthful of bacon. “Maybe he overslept. Should I go to his dorm and wake him?”

A dreamy look fell over Seongwoo as he let his imagination run wild. Yes, he would magically enter the Hufflepuff dorm and go to Daniel’s bed, where he would be greeted by an endearing, sleepy Daniel. Then, he would proceed to smother him with kisses-

“Oi.” Jaehwan shook him out of his daydream rather violently. Seongwoo glared at him for interrupting his scenario. Trust Jaehwan to ruin the only source of happiness in Seongwoo’s life. “Daniel just came in.”

At the sound of Daniel’s name, Seongwoo immediately looked over to the Hufflepuff table. Sure enough, now there was a pink bird’s nest amidst the sea of black, brown and blonde. That was enough to bring a smile to Seongwoo’s face. Jaehwan made a disgusted expression.

“Please stop making googly eyes at him or I’m going to throw up on you.” Jaehwan threatened, though Seongwoo paid it no mind as he continued to stare at the apple of his eye.

It appeared that the apple of his eye was in distress. Seongwoo furrowed his eyebrows in concern as he watched Daniel’s expression contort into a grimace. What was going on?

Because Seongwoo was the Master of Subtlety, he casually sidled over to Daniel’s side of the Hufflepuff table, even though he had no reason to be there (no valid reason, that is). As he got closer, he was able to hear snippets of their conversation.

“… I’m screwed, man. I was supposed to stay up and finish this essay but I ended up falling asleep and drooling all over the notes I made for it instead. Now, I understand it even less than when I first started out.” Daniel looked angry at himself and was clearly very stressed out. Now, puppies weren’t supposed to be stressed out; puppies were supposed to be balls of joy and happiness. So, obviously, Seongwoo _had_ to offer his help seeing as he was an upperclassman.

“Hey there, you having problems with DADA homework?” Daniel whirled around to face Seongwoo, who had to chant to himself mentally _don’t screw this up don’t screw this up don’t screw this up_. “If you need any help, you can just look for me. I’ll be more than glad to offer my assistance.”

It was only after he had gone and fucked the whole thing up that Seongwoo decided to look down at the paper Daniel had in front of him and realised that it was Transfiguration, not Defence against the Dark Arts.

Offering Daniel a weak smile, Seongwoo walked away calmly – or at least that was what he hoped it seemed like. The moment he was out of the Great Hall, he proceeded to release a sound akin to that of a dying goat’s screech and sank onto his knees.

“Why am I such a failure at life? Why?” Seongwoo wailed, hands reaching up to clench at tufts of his hair. “I can’t even offer help properly!”

Just then, the door leading to the Great Hall creaked open and Jaehwan slipped out. At the sight of Seongwoo, a snort escaped Jaehwan. Seongwoo glared balefully at him.

“It’s _not_ funny, Jaehwan. Stop laughing.” Seongwoo ordered, but Jaehwan ignored him and burst out laughing his signature maniacal laugh. If Muggles heard his laugh, they would have sent him to a psychiatric ward. Actually, Seongwoo was contemplating sending Jaehwan to St. Mungo’s more frequently nowadays.

“My life is over. He’s never going to like me back now. I’m going to forever be remembered as that dumbass senior that tried to flirt but failed.” Seongwoo despaired, keeling over and curling into a ball.

“Well, if you’re going to die then I don’t need to tell you his reaction, right?” Jaehwan smirked. Seongwoo uncurled himself and glared sullenly at Jaehwan.

“What was his reaction?”

“Oh, he just turned really pink. It was quite cute actually – he got so embarrassed he buried his face in his arms but then you could still see how red the tips of his ears were.” Seongwoo’s glare had turned into a wistful stare. Maybe he should have stayed behind to see Daniel’s reaction. It sounded cute – though everything Daniel did was cute.

“Wait a minute… why is it so detailed…?” Seongwoo turned his head to look at Jaehwan slowly. The gears clicked in his mind and he didn’t like the conclusion he arrived at.

“Kim Jaehwan, you better not be developing a crush on him or our friendship is over. Got that?” Seongwoo’s eyes were narrowed suspiciously at his potentially-ex-best-friend-of-6-years.

Jaehwan made a gagging sound. “What? Me having a crush on that overgrown puppy? You have got to be kidding me. I prefer the mysterious yet kind type that resembles a desert fox, likes to clean and is good at singing.”

“… That’s oddly specific…”

“Shut up.”

 

 

_4._

 

Daniel’s birthday was approaching. It was one of the few specific dates Seongwoo remembered, which explained why, a month before the 10th of December, Seongwoo was panicking.

“What should I give him?” Seongwoo mumbled to himself, his face squished on the DADA textbook he was supposed to be studying for the upcoming exams. Madam Pince shot him a glare from where she was behind the counter.

“I swear, if I have to hear you ask that one more time…” Jaehwan left off threateningly, pointing his quill at Seongwoo. He was seated across from Seongwoo and next to Minhyun.

“Be nice, Jaehwan.” Minhyun chastised lightly, looking up from the heavy book he had taken out for some ‘light’ reading. Jaehwan at least had the decency to look slightly guilty – though that might have been more because _Minhyun_ had called him out on it rather than him actually feeling bad. “What does he like?”

“Well, he loves Quidditch and cats. He’s some kind of cat whisperer or something, I swear – even Mrs Norris likes him! His favourite Quidditch team is Puddlemere United. He also likes to wear oversized sweaters and he looks _so_ cute in them; I get heart palpitations every time I see his sweater paws. He also likes to drink beer – in particular, he seems to favour the brand Wizard’s Brew.” Seongwoo rambled on and on without any filter. Minhyun listened attentively and, to his credit, didn’t even seem on the verge of falling asleep – unlike Jaehwan who gave a huge yawn right in the middle of Seongwoo’s rant before continuing to bullshit the rest of his way through his Potions essay.

“Do you have anything in mind already? Or are you completely at a lost for what to give him?” Minhyun questioned, sliding a bookmark into his book before closing it and setting it down on the table, ensuring that Seongwoo had his full attention.

“I thought about getting him a signed team photo from Puddlemere, but I realised that I don’t have the connections to do that.” Seongwoo pouted. “Then, I thought about giving him the new Firebolt on the market, but I don’t have the money for that either. Why am I so poor?”

“It’s the thought that matters, and don’t you think Daniel might feel a bit uneasy accepting expensive gifts from someone he barely knows?” Minhyun _did_ have a point there. “Besides, I’ve seen Daniel fawn over cute stuff a lot so why don’t you give him something you made yourself? It’ll also have more meaning than something you bought from a store.”

“Something I can make myself… ooh, maybe I should give him a self-knitted oversized sweater!” Seongwoo snapped his fingers and jumped up in delight at his epiphany. Madam Pince hissed at him and he quickly sat back down, bowing in a silent apology to her.

“You don’t even know how to knit.” Jaehwan deadpanned, looking up from his messy handwriting to raise an eyebrow in disbelief at Seongwoo’s bold declaration.

“Well, that’s why I’m going to _learn_ , Jaehwan.” Seongwoo replied mockingly.

“Well, who are you going to learn _from_ , Seongwoo?” Jaehwan shot back, dipping his quill into the inkpot and preparing to continue his report on Polyjuice Potion.

Seongwoo opened his mouth to reply, but found that he had no answer so he closed it. He mulled over it for a bit. _Who_ knew how to knit in his circle of friends, anyway? Minhyun didn’t, Jaehwan _definitely_ didn’t, Jihoon _might_ , Daehwi also _might_ , Jinyoung probably didn’t. Needless to say, Seongwoo was in a bit of a pinch. Well, he supposed if no one knew how, he could always read a book and learn it the old-fashioned way.

Everything was going to be fine.

 

*

 

As it turned out, everything did _not_ turn out to be fine. First of all, neither Jihoon nor Daehwi knew how to knit (no, Seongwoo did _not_ wail in despair when he found that out). Then, Seongwoo had found out that learning how to knit from a book was _hard_ – especially if the book was constantly yelling at you when you got anything wrong. That was still okay, though, because Seongwoo ended up with a solution anyway: ask the house elves to teach him how (this epiphany occurred to him while he was in the shower).

He had gone to the kitchen armed with his usual charisma and infectious grin, all ready to charm the house elves into helping him out. And that _did_ work out, the house elves were only too happy to be of help. They had assigned a house elf by the name of Jinks to be his mentor and so Seongwoo started visiting the kitchen whenever he had free time.

The kitchens were located within the near vicinity of the Hufflepuff dormitories, so it was only a matter of time until their paths crossed again. It was just unfortunate that it happened when Seongwoo was in the middle of knitting the sweater.

Initially, Seongwoo had paid no mind when the painting to the kitchens had swung open – students visiting the kitchens were a very common occurrence – but then a familiar voice had called out to him.

“Sunbae? What are you doing here?” Seongwoo felt a sense of dread creep up his spine. He quickly stashed the sweater he had been knitting behind him and smiled winningly at Daniel.

“Oh! What a coincidence!” Seongwoo exclaimed loudly, hoping that Daniel wouldn’t bring up the sweater. “I didn’t expect to meet you here!”

“Yes, it’s such a surprise, sunbae.” Daniel beamed at him, greatly resembling an excited puppy. Seongwoo got the idea that if Daniel had a tail, it would be wagging non-stop right now. Seongwoo had to fight the urge to scream and squish Daniel until he couldn’t breathe.

“So, uh, what were you doing?” Daniel asked, still smiling toothily at Seongwoo. Curse Daniel and his stupid smile that seemed to brighten up the entire world. And curse Seongwoo himself for being so weak to the influences of pretty boys.

“Oh, nothing much, I was just knitting.” Seongwoo mustered the most convincing smile he could, hoping that his answer would satisfy Daniel’s puppy-like curiosity.

“Ooh, I didn’t know you knew how to knit!” Daniel looked impressed and Seongwoo could feel his heart inflate to the point of almost bursting.

“Uh, well, see I _didn’t_ know how to at first,” Seongwoo laughed and scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. “I’m learning how to knit from Jinks, one of the house elves.”

“That’s. So. Cool.” Daniel’s eyes were sparkling at this point. “Wow, sunbae, I knew you were cool already, but this is just adding points to your cool factor!”

Seongwoo could feel a light blush spreading itself over his cheeks. “So, what are _you_ doing here?” Seongwoo asked casually, as he adjusted his position so he was able to hide the sweater more proficiently.

“Oh, I was hungry so I came down for a snack.” Daniel looked down suddenly, getting a bit shy. The smile had dropped from his face. Seongwoo wondered why – then he realised that lunch was just an hour ago and that Daniel probably felt a bit embarrassed.

“Hey, there’s no need to feel embarrassed or anything, ok?” Daniel peeked up slightly from the floor only to be met with Seongwoo’s gentle yet serious gaze. It was rare that Seongwoo was ever serious about anything so this was like witnessing a blue moon occur.

“And you can call me hyung. Sunbae sounds too formal.” Seongwoo added after a while.

“Thanks, hyung? Seongwoo hyung.” Daniel tested it out before a smile lit up his face again and Seongwoo breathed a sigh of relief. “I like it.”

“That’s good. And it’s no problem – if you ever feel like you need someone to talk to or anything, you can just come and find me.” The corners of Seongwoo’s lips turned up as Daniel’s did. “Now, what snack did you have in mind?”

“Oh, I had a craving for some waffles and ice cream!” Daniel perked up and his non-existent tail began wagging furiously again. Seongwoo let out a chuckle at how excited Daniel was.

“Jinks, can we please have some waffles and ice cream?” Seongwoo turned to the house elf, who had resumed her kitchen duties while the two of them were talking.

“Of course, good sirs! Jinks will prepare them for kind sirs now!” Jinks bowed to them and rushed off.

“By the way, hyung, why did you suddenly decide to learn how to knit?” Daniel inquired innocently, unknowing of the fact that he had just asked the dreaded question Seongwoo had feared he would.

“Oh, uh… well… Um, a friend’s birthday is coming up soon and he likes homemade stuff so I thought I would… make something for him.” Seongwoo finished off weakly.

“That’s so nice of you, hyung!” Daniel marvelled. Seongwoo’s ears turned pink. “I’m sure your friend will be delighted to receive such a thoughtful gift from you!”

“Yeah, I hope so too.” Seongwoo smiled at Daniel.

Soon enough, Jinks returned carrying a tray with two plates of waffles that had 3 scoops of ice cream on each. Seongwoo and Daniel let out similar sounds of wonder and thanked Jinks for her hard work.

“Let’s dig in then, shall we?” Even before Seongwoo finished his sentence, Daniel was already one mouthful through his plate. He blinked at Seongwoo innocently, ice cream smeared across his lips.

Seongwoo couldn’t help the fond smile that tugged the corners of his mouth up. Daniel was just so _endearing_ – he didn’t get how the younger boy always found new ways to be cute.

They talked while they ate – well, it was mostly Seongwoo talking but he didn’t mind. Seongwoo was actually surprised at how much he was talking; he had expected himself to freeze up if he ever came within 10 cm of Kang Daniel. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. It was mostly thanks to Daniel’s tendency to laugh at anything and everything that an awkward silence didn’t manage to settle over them.

Even after they finished eating, Daniel stayed in the kitchen and they continued to chat. It was only when Daniel gave a stray glance to his watch that he realised just how long he had spent in the kitchen already.

“Oh Merlin! I have to go and finish my Charms homework, hyung. Sorry!” Daniel looked so downcast and disappointed – if he had ears and a tail, they would be drooping. “I really enjoyed talking to you, though. Maybe we can talk again another time…?”

Seongwoo couldn’t believe his ears. Was he truly hearing this or was it just a hallucination induced by being in Kang Daniel’s company for so long? Did Daniel really just say he wanted to hang out with him again?

“Sure! I’ll be spending most of my free time in the kitchens until I finish my friend’s present so you can just come over when you’re free? If I’m not here, I’m probably at the Slytherin common room.” Seongwoo rambled, cheeks slightly flushed. He was still in a state of disbelief.

Daniel grinned, showcasing his signature bunny teeth and consequently reducing Seongwoo’s heart to a puddle of marshmallow fluff. Then, with a “see you later, hyung!” he was out of the kitchens, leaving behind a Seongwoo that was even more in love with him now than he was before.

 

*

 

Seongwoo completed the sweater a week before Daniel’s birthday, which was a miracle in itself seeing as how he and Daniel met up almost every day. Jaehwan had taken one look at it and burst into his psychopathic laughter, thus getting them kicked out of the library and being threatened with a complete ban on even setting foot in the library until they graduate. Seongwoo knew that the only reason why they hadn’t been banned yet was because Madam Pince had a soft spot for Minhyun ( _everyone_ had a soft spot for Hwang Minhyun).

“Oh, the cat is cute.” Minhyun had commented and Seongwoo was _sure_ that had been a pity look in his eyes.

Well, could they really blame him? It was his first time at knitting, after all. Maybe a sweater had been too ambitious (though his ambition was what determined the house colours he donned now). Maybe he should have gone with a scarf or something safer, like socks.

Seongwoo was _so_ screwed.

There wasn’t enough time to make anything else – and Seongwoo couldn’t go to Hogsmeade this weekend owing to the punishment Professor Snape had given him for ‘daydreaming about that stupid Hufflepuff boy’ instead of finishing his Potions essay. Seongwoo didn’t know how Professor Snape even knew of his humongous crush on Daniel and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know either.

It looked like Seongwoo was just going to have to suck it up and give it to Daniel and pray that he wouldn’t think any lesser of him.

After all, Minhyun _did_ say that it was the thought that counts, right?

 

*

 

The day that Seongwoo had marked down on his calendar and had doodled on almost all his notes repeatedly after he had found out about it had finally arrived. For once, Seongwoo hadn’t needed to set an alarm to wake up on time – in fact, he woke up exactly 1 minute before his alarm had been scheduled to ring. Was it normal to be more excited for someone else’s birthday than you were for your own, Seongwoo wondered as he hurriedly brushed his teeth.

“Why’re you up… so early…” Jaehwan slurred deliriously, eyes still closed and mind half-asleep, from where he lay on his bed. The green and silver bed curtains were drawn so Seongwoo could see just how much of a mess his best friend was.

“It’s Daniel’s birthday today!” Seongwoo declared cheerfully after he spit out the mouthful of toothpaste in his mouth. He finished rinsing his mouth and continued smiling and humming to himself while facing the mirror and fixing his hair.

Jaehwan groaned and turned away from Seongwoo’s direction, muffling his face with the emerald covers. He mumbled something inaudible that sounded strangely similar to a curse or an insult or both, but Seongwoo paid it no heed. Nothing could ruin today for him.

By the time Seongwoo had finished getting ready and was spraying on some expensive cologne that he never wore until recently when he began meeting Daniel, the sun was already up. Jaehwan had gone back to sleep at some point during Seongwoo’s routine, so Seongwoo, being the good and kind friend he was, decided to wake him up.

“Kim Jaehwan.” Seongwoo shook the immobile figure bundled up like a burrito in the blankets. “Yah, Kim Jaehwan! Potions is our first class! Do you want to get scolded again?”

Jaehwan muttered something under his breath and burrowed deeper into his pillow. Seongwoo attempted to yank the covers off him but only succeeded partially in dragging Jaehwan from his previous position.

“What did you say?” Seongwoo asked, even as he continued to strip the blanket from Jaehwan’s death-clutch.

“I said, Professor Snape favours Slytherins anyway.” Jaehwan repeated himself, yawning loudly and stretching himself, nearly hitting Seongwoo in the face.

“Hey, watch it! I spent an hour styling my hair!” Seongwoo hissed, hurrying over to the mirror to ensure not a single hair had been knocked out of place.

“One would think you had a date today, with how much you dressed yourself up.” Jaehwan said mockingly, being his usual self even when he had just woken up. He got up slowly and stumbled to the bathroom.

“I’ll let that slide because you’re clearly not in your right mind now.” Seongwoo decided magnanimously as he picked up the carefully wrapped present sitting on his bed. “I’m going first!”

Jaehwan didn’t manage to reply as he already had a toothbrush in his mouth, but a few muffled sounds escaped him by way of goodbye.

As Seongwoo entered the common room, he was greeted by a fellow Slytherin 4th year, Park Jihoon. Jihoon had incredibly pretty and innocent looks – something he was well aware of and made full use of after having received some lessons from Seongwoo himself. Seongwoo had witnessed proudly, like a mother hen, at how Jihoon had weaseled his way into every Professor’s heart – even Professor McGonagall’s. One could even say that he was well on his way to becoming the next Hwang Minhyun, charming the knickers off every being in the school and essentially becoming the School Sweetheart.

“Hi, sunbae.” Jihoon flashed Seongwoo a polite smile that looked slightly strained.

“Hey, Jihoon. Waiting for Jinyoung and Daehwi?” Seongwoo returned Jihoon’s smile with one of his own. He stopped by the portrait hole for Jihoon’s answer, noticing how out-of-it Jihoon seemed. Had something happened?

“Yeah. They’re both still getting ready.” Jihoon replied. Then, ever as observant even when there was something on his mind, his eyes flitted to the present in Seongwoo’s hands. “Who’s that for?”

“Oh, this? It’s for a friend.” Seongwoo waved at Jihoon, deciding to confront him later only if Jihoon was still troubled. “I’ll go first. See you later!”

Then, he was out of the Slytherin common room. Taking one of the shortcuts he had memorised over the years, it was only around 10 minutes later that he found himself outside of the doors to the Great Hall.

He had seen those doors countless of times during his 6 years at Hogwarts, but suddenly he found them as daunting as he had during his first year. Seongwoo could feel his heart pumping faster even as he contemplated just pushing the doors open, striding in to the Great Hall and shoving the present into Daniel’s hands. Just the thought of it was enough to make him want to scream into his pillow.

Taking a deep breath, Seongwoo decided _fuck it_ and pushed the doors open. The first thing he did was scan the Hufflepuff table for the familiar pink-haired boy, only to come away with disappointment.

Daniel wasn’t there yet. Seongwoo hovered at the doors uncertainly, not knowing what he should do now. He had been so ready to stalk over to Daniel and to profess his love for him that he was now at a loss for what to do as his plan was foiled without him even getting to put it in place. It was only thanks to years of muscle memory that his feet managed to navigate him towards the Slytherin table. He sank down onto the bench.

This called for a change in his plans. Seongwoo mulled it over as he stuffed the present into his bag (so any stray crumbs wouldn’t dirty it) before starting to butter a toast. Well, he would simply have to just wait until Daniel arrived before he gave the present to him. He didn’t mind – any delay in the decrease of Seongwoo’s ‘cool factor points’ as seen by Daniel was considered a blessing to him.

He started to worry when Jaehwan appeared, with severely dishevelled hair, but Daniel had yet to arrive. What was keeping the love of his life? Had he overslept again? Seongwoo was so distracted by the questions floating around his mind that he almost stabbed Jaehwan with the knife he had been using to spread a liberal amount of blackberry jam on his second piece of toast with.

“Oops.”

“Did you just try to kill me?” Jaehwan looked at Seongwoo with a betrayed look, his words layered in an accusatory tone. Seongwoo might have been a little more apologetic if he wasn’t already used to Jaehwan being overdramatic.

“It was an accident; if I wanted to kill you, you wouldn’t still be here.” Seongwoo rolled his eyes and continue to spread jam on his toast.

Jaehwan grabbed at his chest dramatically, fisting up his robes that were lined with emerald green. Then, he started to bemoan his life and how he had suffered through 6 years of Seongwoo’s shit-headedness only to be treated like dirt on his shoe. Seongwoo tuned it out as his eyes remained fixated on the Hufflepuff table, as if Daniel might suddenly poof out of thin air if he kept staring at it intently.

Soon enough, it was time to head to their classes but Daniel had still not shown up. There was no telltale sign of pink anywhere. Seongwoo was beside himself with worry and concern. Had Daniel fallen ill? Was he in the Hospital Wing? Seongwoo was sorely tempted to skip his first class just so he could check to see if Daniel truly was in the Hospital Wing.

Fortunately, Jaehwan could be trusted to deter Seongwoo from making rash decisions. When Seongwoo was about to sneak off towards the Hospital Wing, Jaehwan caught hold of his sleeve and quirked an eyebrow.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Jaehwan asked, though he had an idea of what Seongwoo was about to do.

“I’m just going to take a quick peek into the Hospital Wing.” Seongwoo replied, attempting to swat off Jaehwan’s fingers but to no avail.

“And _why_ are you doing that? Do you want to get scolded by Professor Snape _again_?” Jaehwan looked like he was about to start on a tirade. “In case you forgot, he threatened you with a whole year of Hogsmeade-less weekends the next time you are late.”

“Wait, seriously?” Seongwoo paused momentarily. He couldn’t seem to recall Professor Snape ever having said that. “I don’t remember any such threat.”

“That’s because you were daydreaming about Daniel again when he was scolding you.” Jaehwan heaved a heavy sigh. “Anyway, let’s hurry to class. I don’t want to be late.”

“You go on ahead. I promise this won’t take long. Keep him occupied or something. Thanks!” Before Jaehwan could protest, Seongwoo had shoved his bag into Jaehwan’s hands and slipped away, somehow having miraculously freed himself from Jaehwan’s grip.

“That slimy eel,” Jaehwan muttered to himself. “He would be long dead if I wasn’t here to save his ass.”

While Jaehwan hurried to Potions class, Seongwoo was striding purposefully down the hallway towards the Hospital Wing. He was doing so because should any professor (or Filch) happen upon him, they would assume he had been assigned a task by his current class professor instead of him skipping class. It must have worked (or Seongwoo was just incredibly lucky) because he managed to get to the Hospital Wing without any obstacles in his path.

He stole into the Hospital Wing quietly – tiptoeing, even. He didn’t want to be discovered by Madam Pomfrey – that could only end in multiple questions asked, none of which Seongwoo had the conviction he could make up lies to on the spot. He gave a quick scan of the room, only for it to end in disappointment and relief when there was no sight of pink hair anywhere. The only patient there was a 3rd year Gryffindor, Park Woojin, the victim of an exploding potion incident. From where Seongwoo was, he could make out part of Woojin’s face wrapped in bandages. Clearly, the damage had been severe enough that the injuries still weren’t healed fully despite the many magical remedies available at Hogwarts.

As much as Seongwoo wanted to ask Woojin for further details about his accident, he decided that 1) it would be rude to wake Woojin up and 2) time was ticking and Jaehwan couldn’t possibly occupy Professor Snape’s attention for much longer. So, Seongwoo hurried out of the Hospital Wing and to the dungeons as fast as he could, employing the use of a few shortcuts.

Reaching the Potions classroom, Seongwoo paused for a moment to regain his breath. During this time, he decided to multitask and put his ear to the door. He could hear the cold snarl in Professor Snape’s voice. Seongwoo opened the door carefully, sneaking in quickly and closing it quietly behind him. Then, he crept to his usual seat and barely managed to slide into it before Professor Snape’s eyes landed on him.

Seongwoo mustered the biggest and most innocent smile he could pull off, widening his eyes slightly as if to inquire if Professor Snape had any questions? The eye contact lasted a few more moments before Professor Snape turned his attention back to Jaehwan and Seongwoo was able to breathe a sigh of relief. Thank Merlin he hadn’t been caught otherwise he would have had to forfeit any future potential Hogsmeade dates with Daniel.

“As I was saying before, any questions you may have can be asked at the end of the lesson, Mr. Kim. Now get back to your seat. You have delayed my lesson enough.” Professor Snape sneered.

Jaehwan couldn’t have looked more relieved at Seongwoo’s arrival. He quickly went back to his seat next to Seongwoo and stomped on Seongwoo’s foot. Seongwoo had to bite down on his lip so he wouldn’t scream. For the usual weakling Jaehwan was, he had an inordinate amount of strength when causing pain to people.

“ _That_ was for taking a million years.” Jaehwan hissed at Seongwoo, still glaring at him and seething. “Do you know how many years I aged doing that? You owe me 20 Galleons and a date with Minhyun.”

“Thanks, Jaehwannie~” Seongwoo slid an arm around Jaehwan’s shoulders and pulled him in for a sideways hug. Jaehwan looked slightly more appeased.

“All that better have been worth _something_. Now tell me, _what in the name of Merlin’s beard were you doing?_ ” Seongwoo was about to answer Jaehwan’s question when Professor Snape turned towards their direction, a menacing glare in his eyes.

“Mr. Ong, Mr. Kim, I would advise you to stop talking if you do not want a month’s worth of detentions.” The words may have been spoken softly, but they were filled with contempt and threats.

Once Professor Snape’s back was turned, Seongwoo mouthed “ _later_ ” to Jaehwan before taking out his notebook and starting to copy down the instructions on the board. The class went by quietly, no one daring to make so much as a peep, and there were no explosions or accidents.

When the class finished, Seongwoo started to tell Jaehwan his worries about Daniel on their way to their next class. Jaehwan listened attentively without so much as interrupting Seongwoo once – a feat that should be recorded down.

Much to his dismay, Jaehwan didn’t even look half as bothered as Seongwoo was by the news. In fact, the expression on his face was more of one of disbelief than worry.

“Seongwoo, I’ve known you for 6 years and I can’t help but notice that you have a tendency to overreact and overthink about simple things.” At the sight of Seongwoo about to protest, Jaehwan held up a finger to silence him. “Have you considered that maybe, just _maybe_ , Daniel wanted an off day on his birthday?”

Seongwoo was about to retort that yes, he _did_ think about that, but he was stopped short when he failed to recall himself ever having thought that. At the silence, Jaehwan smirked victoriously.

“Now, go ask Minhyun for the password to the Hufflepuff common room and surprise your loverboy.”

 

*

 

“Minhyunnie~”

“What do you want, Seongwoo?”

“Aw, not even a hi back? What makes you think I want something from you? Couldn’t I have just wanted to say hi?”

“You only use that tone when you want something from me.”

“Touché. Anyway, could you show me the password to the Hufflepuff common room please?”

“Stop using those puppy eyes on me. What do you want it for?”

“Well, there’s a certain 5th year cutie hiding inside it and his birthday is today and I want to give him his present. Please, Minhyunnie?”

“Fine, come with me. I’ll open it for you.”

“Yay! You’re the best, Minhyunnie!”

“Stop calling me that or I won’t open it for you.”

“Ahh, okay okay, I’ll stop.”

 

*

 

The Hufflepuff common room was homey and cosy. It was decorated in black and yellow, and there were various types of plants all around the room. A portrait of Helga Hufflepuff sat above the wooden mantelpiece, where she toasted students with her small golden cup. Underneath it, a warm fire was roaring.

Minhyun had left after having opened up the entrance for Seongwoo, claiming that he had something to do. The common room appeared to be devoid of students, perhaps owing to the fact that they were supposed to be in class now (as was Seongwoo).

“Hello?” Seongwoo called out as he walked across the common room to the two round doors at the back, which he assumed led to the boys’ and girls’ dormitories respectively. One of the succulent plants waved merrily at him as he went and Seongwoo felt half-compelled to wave back.

Having received no answer, Seongwoo decided to try again. “Daniel? Are you here?” He approached the door on the left cautiously, as if it led to a fire-breathing dragon.

He was close enough to hear something being knocked over behind the door, which was followed by a string of curses. There was a bit of shuffling around, and then the door opened and out peeked the tuft of pink hair that Seongwoo had been looking for the entire day.

“Seongwoo hyung?” Daniel’s cheeks were weirdly pink, matching with his hair. He also looked very surprised at Seongwoo’s presence. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, you were missing at breakfast.” Seongwoo replied. It was only when Daniel’s brows furrowed further that he realised it might not have been a good idea to alert Daniel to his humongous crush on him, so he quickly added, “I wanted to give you a present since it’s your birthday today.”

He rummaged through his bag, taking out the present and handing it to Daniel with a smile. “Happy birthday, Daniel!”

Daniel’s mouth dropped into an ‘o’ shape even as a blush spread across his cheeks. He accepted the present from Seongwoo, bowing his head in an attempt to hide the pink in his cheeks.

“O-oh, thank you hyung! You didn’t have to!” The tips of Daniel’s ears were red now and Seongwoo chuckled to himself at how cute and flustered Daniel was just from receiving a present. It made him want to spoil Daniel with all sorts of gifts.

“Of course I had to – it’s your birthday!” Seongwoo laughed playfully. “You can go ahead and open it up. I want to see your reaction.”

Perhaps it was owing to the fact that Seongwoo had not seen the end product of all his knitting lessons for about 3 days; when you are not regularly exposed to something, you start to doubt that it could possibly have been _that_ terrible. Surely, that must have been what had prompted him to encourage Daniel to open his present in front of him.

Daniel started to unwrap the present carefully. It seemed he was one of those people that tried their best to salvage whatever they could of the gift-wrapping paper. A few minutes passed before Daniel finally managed to open the present and revealed to the world the abomination that Seongwoo had created.

While Daniel unfolded the sweater, Seongwoo stared at it numbly. He didn’t remember it to be _this_ bad. What had he been thinking? What could possibly have been going through his mind when he had decided that he could give this monstrosity to his crush? Great, just great. This was going to make Daniel hate him forever and Seongwoo would have to move to a new country and-

“Hyung, I love it!” Daniel’s exclamation brought Seongwoo out of his thoughts. He looked at Daniel disbelievingly, wondering if Daniel was being sarcastic because in what universe could anyone actually _love_ that ugly sweater?

That was when he realised that Daniel had pulled the sweater on over the shirt he had been wearing. His subsequent thought was _wow Daniel can make anything look nice on him_.

“Did you make this yourself?” Daniel was now examining the sleeve of the sweater closely, an expression of wonder on his face.

“Y-yeah.” Seongwoo managed to stammer out, not quite able to say anything else in the face of such perfection and cuteness. His ears felt hot and he was quite sure he was blushing.

Then, Daniel pulled Seongwoo into a hug and Seongwoo’s heart stuttered to a momentary stop. His eyes widened to the size of saucer plates as his arms instinctively reached up to hug Daniel back.

He couldn’t believe it. He was hugging Daniel! Daniel had hugged him first! And _man_ , Daniel smelled like peaches and freshly baked cookies – which were two of Seongwoo’s favourite things. Seongwoo discreetly inhaled deeper, wishing to imprint Daniel’s scent in his memory forever.

When Daniel pulled back, he couldn’t help the disappointment that filled him. The Hufflepuff had been so cuddly and Seongwoo wished they could just cuddle together like couples did and hold hands and go on dates.

“Thank you _so_ much, hyung!” Daniel looked to be quite red in the face. Seongwoo wondered if it was because he felt too hot after having slipped the sweater on. “I’m really grateful that you spent so much time to knit me a sweater when you have your exams coming up. How did you know that I like cats?”

Ah, Seongwoo had not foreseen that question coming. Thankfully, he had had practice in having to make things up on the spot when put under pressure.

“Don’t mention it. I’m just happy you liked it because Jaehwan thought it was ugly,” he inserted a laugh here to play it off as a joke. “And I just took a wild guess because I’ve seen you petting some cats before around the school?”

Before Daniel could reply, he continued on, not wanting Daniel to point out any flaws in his statement. “By the way, what are you doing in your dorm?”

His diversion tactic worked, because Daniel reached up with one of his sweater paws to rub at his neck sheepishly and Seongwoo had to restrain himself from squealing. “Oh, uh my friends are throwing me a birthday party. D-do you want to join in?”

While that sounded sorely tempting to Seongwoo, he was well aware that his next class was Transfiguration and something told him Professor McGonagall would not accept ‘I was attending a birthday party’ as a suitable reason for skipping her class.

“I can’t, actually,” Daniel’s face fell and Seongwoo felt his heart ache because puppies weren’t supposed to look crestfallen. “Professor McGonagall might actually kill me if I skip her class. Maybe we can hang out next time?”

Daniel brightened up at Seongwoo’s question and he nodded enthusiastically. Seongwoo thought that if his heart suffered anymore palpitations, he might end up dead before Professor McGonagall arrived to kill him herself.

“Sure, hyung!”

“See you next time then.” Seongwoo shot another smile at Daniel. “I’ll get going now! Go back to your party and have fun!”

“I will, hyung. Bye!”

Seongwoo left the Hufflepuff common room with a sense of accomplishment and a soaring heart. The scent of peaches and cookies stayed with him throughout the rest of the day.

 

 

_5._

 

Seongwoo couldn’t sleep.

It had been around 2 hours since he had first announced that he was going to bed and drew the curtains around his bed, but Seongwoo had yet to drift off to Dreamland. Something always seemed to be bothering him – like how it was too hot under the blankets but too cold outside them, and how there seemed to be an itch on his arm that he couldn’t get at, and how every sleeping position he tried grew tiring or awkward after a while.

He sat up suddenly, unable to take it anymore. He was beyond frustrated at how he just couldn’t _sleep_. All of a sudden, the Slytherin dormitories seemed too cramped and stuffy – which was odd because Seongwoo had never thought the word ‘stuffy’ could be used to describe his dorm. Right now, he longed for nothing more than some fresh air.

Seongwoo found himself pulling back the curtains and slipping into his slippers. He wandered out of the dormitories, through the common room and out of it. The only lighting was provided by candles but Seongwoo didn’t mind the darkness.

He let his feet carry him down the corridors aimlessly, not really having a destination in mind. Seongwoo didn’t know how long he wandered up staircases, past countless portraits and classrooms; he just knew that by the end of it, he found himself before the steep spiral staircase to the Astronomy Tower.

He decided that maybe it would be good to have some stargazing activity and advanced up the stairs. The relief he felt upon reaching the top and the cold night air that nipped at his skin was almost forgotten as he caught a glimpse of a figure shrouded in shadows. He almost backed off – if it weren’t for the moonlight that suddenly illuminated the familiar pink hair, he would have certainly crept away.

What was Daniel doing at the Astronomy Tower at midnight?

Something about Daniel’s figure seemed off. He was sitting down, with his knees to his chest and his shoulders sagging. His head was resting on his arms. It seemed like he was stressed out and tired. Seongwoo heard him sigh heavily even as he lifted his head to look at the night sky.

Seongwoo cleared his throat and Daniel jumped at the sudden noise, startled. He whipped around to stare at Seongwoo with wide, shocked eyes.

“H-hyung!” Daniel blinked multiple times, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same of you,” Seongwoo smiled wryly as he went to sit next to Daniel. Daniel’s eyes followed him, still evidently surprised. “I couldn’t sleep and wanted some fresh air, so I came here. What about you?”

“Me?” Daniel pointed to himself. He smiled, but it wasn’t a very convincing one. “Ah, same as you.”

Seongwoo could tell that he was lying. It might have been better to not prod, but Seongwoo felt worried and he wanted Daniel to know that he cared about him. “Oh, really? Because I’ve heard famous stories about how you can fall asleep literally _anywhere_ at any time.” Seongwoo wriggled his eyebrows playfully, hoping his words didn’t sound too invasive or creepy.

“But seriously, though, if there’s anything bothering you, it might be better to get it off your chest and I’m willing to lend you my ear and shoulder to cry on, if you need it.”

There was silence. Seongwoo couldn’t bring himself to look at Daniel so he settled for staring at the stars instead, watching them wink at him cheekily from where they hung in the sky. It was actually quite cold, and Seongwoo found himself regretting not bringing a coat with him.

After a while, Seongwoo finally found the courage to sneak a quick peek at Daniel. To his astonishment, the younger boy was tearing up.

“Oh Merlin, did I do something wrong?” Seongwoo panicked upon seeing a tear roll down Daniel’s cheek. He was never any good at comforting people who were crying. “Are you okay? Wait, that’s a stupid question – you’re crying, of _course_ you’re not okay. Um, is there anything I can do? A hug, maybe?”

Daniel sniffled. “A-a hug w-would be nice.”

Seongwoo didn’t hesitate to gather Daniel into his arms, wrapping them tightly around Daniel’s quivering frame. He felt Daniel rest his head on his shoulder and, soon enough, he could feel the tears soaking through his pyjamas, but he didn’t mind. He rubbed Daniel’s back soothingly, feeling how Daniel’s sobs were wracking his body. He felt his heart ache every time Daniel sniffled. Oh, how he wished he could take the pain away from Daniel. He didn’t mind if he was the one to suffer instead of Daniel.

All kinds of thoughts were running around in Seongwoo’s mind. The most prominent one of all was _why is Daniel crying?_ Seongwoo felt utterly helpless – he didn’t know what to say to make Daniel hurt less and it was killing him that he couldn’t do anything but hold Daniel. It was heartbreaking to hear Daniel sobbing without any clue as to the reason why.

Seongwoo didn’t know how long he sat there with Daniel in his arms, rocking back and forth slightly and patting him on the back. Seongwoo had always dreamed and fantasised of holding Daniel, but he had never factored Daniel crying into the equation simply because Daniel hadn’t seemed like the type to cry. Seongwoo berated himself mentally – how could he have assumed that just because Daniel put up a happy-go-lucky mask that Daniel would never cry? Out of everyone else, he should have known better.

Eventually, Daniel’s sobs came to a stop, with the occasional sniffle. Seongwoo continued to rub his back, mind and heart still racing a million miles an hour, wondering how he could make Daniel feel better.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.” Daniel muttered almost inaudibly. His voice sounded like it was on the verge of cracking. He breathed in shakily, still trembling – though that might have had something to do with the surrounding temperature.

“It’s fine, I _did_ offer myself on a silver platter,” Seongwoo attempted to joke to get rid of any tension or awkward feelings Daniel might have. His heart dropped when he felt Daniel’s body tremble against his again, but it quickly leaped with relief when he realised that Daniel was giggling.

“Sorry for getting your shirt wet,” Daniel mumbled as he pulled away from Seongwoo, his hands going up to his face to wipe off the tear streaks. Seongwoo felt his heart shattering into even more pieces as he observed how puffy and red Daniel’s eyes were.

“It’s alright, I have many other pyjama shirts to wear.” Seongwoo smiled weakly at Daniel but it soon faltered. “Do you want to talk about it? It’s totally fine if you don’t want to but seeing how much you cried... I’m worried for you.”

The words hung heavily in the silence that followed. Daniel seemed to be deciding whether he should spill his feelings out to Seongwoo or not. Seongwoo looked at him encouragingly and his eyes seemed to say _I’m here for you_. Daniel must have believed it, because he gathered up a deep breath and started to tell Seongwoo about his worries.

“Well, you know I’m Muggleborn, right?” An affirmative nod from Seongwoo. “My parents… they didn’t like that I had magic. They already had my whole life planned out – which prestigious schools I would attend and what high-end job I would have in the future. And then suddenly, Professor McGonagall shows up on my birthday and breaks it to them that I’m a wizard. They laughed at first because it’s absurd, isn’t it?” Daniel laughed humourlessly. “My parents are firm believers of science and to them, magic was a magician’s trick unexplained. Then, Professor McGonagall turned into a cat and they were left speechless – they couldn’t exactly deny that, could they? After that, they were more willing to sit down and let Professor McGonagall explain to them about Hogwarts and the wizarding world.

Still, they almost didn’t want to let me come to Hogwarts – and they wouldn’t have if I didn’t promise them that I would maintain the top position in my classes. Even now, if I so much as drop to 2nd place, they’ll withdraw me from Hogwarts and send me to a Muggle school instead… And it’s just so- it’s so pressuring and stressful especially since I’m taking my OWLs in June and if I don’t get straight Os then I’ll have to say goodbye to using magic forever and I don’t want to do that! I love magic and I love being a wizard and getting to attend Hogwarts and-“ Daniel choked and Seongwoo moved to pat him on the back comfortingly. “I-I’m fine, just a bit… emotional I guess, sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Seongwoo said gently, rubbing circles soothingly on Daniel’s back.

“It’s just- I’ve been dealing with this for 5 years. It’s not that I didn’t have any pressure put on me before then – it’s just that it feels like they put more on me now because I’m not following their wishes? It’s been 5 years but it still hurts… it still hurts every time I tell them about an accomplishment and they couldn’t care less about it. And I thought I was okay with sacrificing some things for my dreams but sometimes-“ Daniel’s voice cracked. “Sometimes, I just don’t know anymore. Sometimes, I feel like I’d give up anything just for my mom to ruffle my hair and my dad to thump my back in congratulations.”

Seongwoo could see that tears were building up in Daniel’s eyes again, but he remained silent. He didn’t know what to say when he had absolutely no experience on the subject itself. He had grown up in a pureblood family where his parents had doted on and cared for him since day one. How could he even begin to try to comfort Daniel when he didn’t know what he was feeling?

“I just… I just miss my parents so much.” Daniel finished off, his voice quavering. Seongwoo could tell that he was trying his best to hold back the tears from falling again. Daniel jumped a bit when Seongwoo suddenly enveloped him in a fierce bear-hug but soon melted into his arms.

“I’m sorry you have to go through this,” Seongwoo finally said after a while. “And I- I have no experience in this and I don’t really know what I can do to help, but I want you to know that you’re not in this alone, okay? I’m here for you.”

“Thank you, hyung.” Daniel whispered back softly. “You being here for me is more than enough.”

They lapsed back into silence, but it didn’t feel awkward anymore – at least not to Seongwoo. He had resumed his stargazing, just staring blankly at the infinite expanse of cloudless midnight sky dotted with bright pricks of light. Daniel was lying down with one side of his cheek on Seongwoo’s shoulder, still tightly cocooned in Seongwoo’s embrace.

The serene silence was broken by the sound of Daniel’s stomach grumbling. Daniel burst out giggling, though still a bit teary-eyed, peeling himself away from Seongwoo’s shoulder. The sound and sight were both infectious and Seongwoo found himself chuckling. It made Seongwoo’s heart soar to see Daniel happy again.

“Let’s go get some hot chocolate from the kitchens.” Seongwoo proposed, standing up and offering his hand to Daniel. Daniel accepted it and Seongwoo pulled him up.

“Sure!” Daniel smiled – it wasn’t as bright as it used to be, but Seongwoo could tell it was genuine. They went back down the stairs and into the castle, shivering as the warmth inside Hogwarts enveloped them - that was when Seongwoo realised just how cold it had been outside.

“Oh wow, how did we not notice it was that cold?” Seongwoo wondered out loud, shivering slightly. It was more of a genuine observation than an icebreaker, but it worked quite well as the latter too.

“Well, hyung, it must have been my presence. I’ve been told that I’m very hot.” Daniel followed up his self-bragging with a wink and Seongwoo laughed in disbelief at how _cheeky_ Daniel was being. Still, it was good to know that Daniel was feeling good enough to joke around now.

While they walked to the kitchens, Seongwoo decided to tell Daniel about the time he, Jonghyun, Minhyun and Jaehwan had ventured into Muggle London for a tour from Jonghyun himself as a celebration for finishing their OWLs. Jonghyun was a Muggleborn while Minhyun, Jaehwan and Seongwoo were Purebloods. Needless to say, they had been quite the sight – getting excited over subway tickets and Muggle bank notes and Muggle cellphones. They had even taken a few pictures together on Jonghyun’s phone – though Jaehwan had been thoroughly confused at why the picture didn’t move.

(“Why isn’t it moving?”

“Because it’s not magical.”

“How come this one can move then?”

“That’s a video. And who told you you could swipe right?”

“Oooh isn’t this that 4th year Hufflepuff-“

“Give my phone back, Jaehwan.”

“Oh, something just popped up on your screen! Let me read it. From- Ow! Hyung, that hurt!”

“That’s why you should never try to do it again, Jaehwan-ah.”

“Wow, hyung. It really _is_ the quiet ones that you should watch out for, huh…”)

Before they knew it, they found themselves in front of the portrait of a bowl of fruit. Seongwoo tickled the pear and it squirmed, laughing as it turned into a doorknob. He swung the portrait back, revealing the passage.

“After you, Sir Kang.” Seongwoo smirked, mock bowing.

“Why, isn’t it ladies first?” Daniel replied, equally mockingly.

They stared each other down for a moment before bursting into laughter. Shaking his head, Daniel went first through the passageway, and Seongwoo followed soon after. The portrait swung close behind them once they were both inside.

The house-elves were busy with their work, cleaning pots and pans and dishes and cutlery. Seongwoo looked around for Jinks and brightened up when he saw her at the side, sharpening some knives.

“Jinks!” Seongwoo called, waving to her excitedly. “Over here!”

The house-elf perked up at the call of her name and rushed over to where Seongwoo and Daniel stood. “Kind sirs! What can Jinks do for sirs?” Jinks asked with a deep bow.

“Can we have some hot chocolate, please?” Seongwoo asked politely, smiling. “Daniel and I will wait over by the corner.”

Without really thinking through his actions, Seongwoo took hold of Daniel’s hand and started leading him towards his area choice. It was only when they reached the corner that Seongwoo realised what he had done. He went red immediately and dropped Daniel’s hand like it was scalding hot.

“Uh, sorry I kinda took your hand without thinking.” Seongwoo smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. There was a flash of emotion in Daniel’s eyes but it disappeared before Seongwoo could pinpoint what it was.

“It’s fine! I don’t mind, really!” Daniel was quick to reassure Seongwoo, which only made Seongwoo’s heart squeeze painfully hard. Daniel was always so caring and making sure that other people’s feelings weren’t hurt.

Jinks returned with two mugs of hot chocolate with a spoon each in them and a large bowl of marshmallows. Seongwoo and Daniel thanked her and turned their attention to their midnight snack. Seongwoo opted to take a sip of hot chocolate first while Daniel went straight for the marshmallow bowl, taking three at once and plonking them into his mug.

Seongwoo watched fondly as Daniel scooped a partially-melted marshmallow into his mouth, staining the corner of his lips as he did so. Seongwoo was hit with a strong temptation to lean over and wipe it off but he refrained himself from doing so with much difficulty. It was inappropriate, Seongwoo chanted to himself mentally, though it did nothing to curb the urge he had.

“Seongwoo hyung?” Daniel had noticed that Seongwoo hadn’t been eating any marshmallows nor drinking his hot chocolate. His eyebrows were scrunched up in worry. “Are you okay? You seem out of it.”

“Ah, I’m just feeling a bit tired.” Seongwoo flashed a smile at Daniel, hoping he wouldn’t push it further. He didn’t particularly feel like revealing that he had been too caught up in watching Daniel eat. To divert the topic, Seongwoo hurriedly snatched a marshmallow from the bowl and popped it into his mouth. “Mm, this is good!”

Daniel seemed to be satisfied that Seongwoo was eating too. “Do you want to bet how many marshmallows I can fit in my mouth?” Daniel wiggled his eyebrows challengingly. “I bet I can fit 20.”

“Please, 20’s nothing.” Seongwoo scoffed. “I bet you couldn’t do 30.”

“And if I can?” Daniel smirked.

“Then… I’ll grant one of your wishes. But it has to be reasonable and within my capabilities to do so. And if you can’t do it… then you have to grant one of my wishes.” Seongwoo’s inner self was chuckling evilly. There was no way Daniel was going to be able to fit 30 marshmallows into his mouth. Seongwoo’s mind drifted off briefly to what request he was going to make Daniel grant him. A date, maybe? His hand in marriage?

“Hyung, watch me! I’m going to start now!” Daniel smiled toothily, excited to win the bet. After ensuring Seongwoo’s attention was on him, he popped a marshmallow into his mouth, pushing it to the far back.

“That’s one.” Seongwoo counted patronisingly, smirking at Daniel, who proceeded to stuff another one into his mouth. “And that’s two.”

It continued on like this for a while, Seongwoo counting every marshmallow Daniel put into his mouth. Sometime into it, Seongwoo started smiling fondly at the endearing sight of Daniel and his puffy cheeks that were filled with marshmallows. He resembled a squirrel and Seongwoo felt the urge to poke his cheeks.

“Twenty!” Seongwoo exclaimed happily. Daniel’s cheeks looked like they were about to burst – he couldn’t _possibly_ fit anymore, right?

Seongwoo was wrong.

He could only watch in dismay as Daniel continued to stuff 10 more marshmallows into his mouth. _How in the name of Merlin’s beard was that possible?_ Well, time to say goodbye to all of Seongwoo’s hopes and dreams of ever going on a date with his longtime crush.

“Ok, fine. You win.” Seongwoo pouted. He had already been planning just where he would take Daniel for their first date and now it turned out that he would have to cancel his plans. “What wish would you have me grant you, Master Kang?”

Once Daniel had finished taking out enough marshmallows from his mouth that he was now able to safely chew the others, he mulled it over in his head while sipping his now lukewarm ‘hot’ chocolate. Seongwoo watched him warily, praying that Daniel wouldn’t make him do anything embarrassing.

“Oh! I know!” Daniel snapped his fingers like he had discovered the meaning of life. “You can take me on a shopping spree to Honeydukes on our next weekend to Hogsmeade!”

Seongwoo blinked once. Twice. Was he having hearing problems now? Was there something in the hot chocolate that had caused him to hallucinate? Did Daniel just ask Seongwoo to take him on a date?

Seongwoo discreetly pinched himself on his thigh and yelped in pain. Ok, so I’m not dreaming, Seongwoo thought as he rubbed the spot he had pinched.

“You’ll grant my wish right, hyung?” Daniel pouted at him and Seongwoo felt his heart stop beating at the sudden show of cuteness. He could practically see Daniel’s puppy ears and tail drooping.

“O-of course. I lost the bet, after all.” Seongwoo managed to regain his composure enough to stutter out his answer. Daniel perked up at Seongwoo’s agreement and smiled at him, his eyes crinkling into half-moon crescents and his bunny teeth showing, and Seongwoo forgot how to breathe.

“Yay! Thank you so much, hyu-“ Daniel was cut off in the middle of his sentence by a yawn. “-ng.”

He blinked sleepily, largely resembling a sleepy puppy, and Seongwoo wanted nothing more than to coo at him and wrap him in a blanket and rock him to sleep.

“Ok, I think it’s your bedtime, Mister Kang.” Seongwoo joked, standing up and stretching. He beckoned for the reluctant puppy to get up as well, and he did albeit grudgingly.

“I’m not 5. I don’t have a bedtime.” Daniel sulked as he followed Seongwoo in stretching as well.

“Whatever you say~” Seongwoo singsonged. He finished up his stretching and headed over to the exit, Daniel following close behind.

“Goodbye! Thank you for the food!” Seongwoo made sure to thank the house-elves, smiling at them with gratitude. Daniel thanked them as well and then they were both exiting the kitchens.

Seongwoo walked Daniel back to the Hufflepuff common room. Their journey there was silent because both were now feeling the weight of some time around 3 a.m. on their eyelids. Daniel yawned a couple more times, sleepily rubbing at his eyes, and infected Seongwoo with them too.

In the time they had taken to reach the Hufflepuff common room, Seongwoo’s eyes had progressively gotten smaller as he fought harder and harder to keep them open. He felt like he was one of the living dead.

“Thanks for walking me back, hyung. And also for everything else you did for me today.” Daniel turned to him with a tired but genuine smile.

“It was no problem. If you ever need someone to talk to, you know who to call.” Seongwoo somehow found enough energy in him to pull off a mischevious wink. “Now go to bed. You look like you’re about to drop dead.”

“You too, hyung. Goodnight! Don’t get caught by Filch.” And with that, Daniel gave the middle barrel a series of taps and disappeared into the passage that appeared shortly after.

“Goodnight!” Seongwoo called after him.

Seongwoo had no idea how he managed to make it back to the Slytherin common room without falling asleep halfway. He supposed it was a good thing that the Hufflepuff and Slytherin common rooms were relatively near to each other.

By the time he reached his bed, he was too tired to do anything else except to flop onto the silk covers and fall asleep and dream of a puppy-like Hufflepuff with the cutest eye-smiles and pretty pink hair.

 

 

_6._

 

“Oi, get up.”

There was a mysterious force attempting to uncurl him from the blankets he had wrapped around himself. Seongwoo furrowed his eyebrows and tried to wriggle away from it but to no avail. The mysterious force succeeded in yanking the blankets away from him and thus exposing him to the bright sunlight.

Seongwoo hissed like the light had burned him and burrowed away into his pillows. At least the light wouldn’t fall on his eyes if he covered his face. He could feel a pounding in his head – it was like there was a blacksmith hammering away at the inside of his skull with the sole aim of splitting it open.

“Yah, Seongwoo!” The mentioned Slytherin groaned at the loud noise. The mysterious force was sounding a lot like Jaehwan. It had better not be Jaehwan because Seongwoo was going to strangle whoever it was that had woken him up (once the headache went away, that is).

“We have class today!” Now _that_ caught Seongwoo’s attention. He peeked out from the pillow he had been muffling his face with.

“What?” It came out sounding like gibberish. Jaehwan, who was already dressed in his Slytherin robes and had his bag slung over his shoulder, sighed.

“We have class!” He repeated himself. Seongwoo winced at the volume. “Come on, get up! You can still make it for breakfast if you hurry.”

“I have a hangover…” Seongwoo whined even as Jaehwan started to strip him from his bed again, managing to pull Seongwoo into a sitting position. “It hurts, Jaehwannie…”

“I _told_ you not to drink that 5 th bottle of Firewhiskey. I reminded you we have class the next morning. Did you listen to me? No!” Jaehwan muttered angrily, though Seongwoo could hear every word of it.

“I drank _5 bottles of Firewhiskey_?” Seongwoo groaned, resting his head on his palm. “No wonder I feel like my head’s going to split open any minute now.”

“Here.” Jaehwan thrust the bottle at Seongwoo, who almost failed to catch it. Seongwoo uncapped it and sniffed, making a face immediately after.

“Bleurghh, what’s this?” Seongwoo grimaced, holding it away from him as far as possible.

“It’s a hangover potion. I had to pay Lee Daehwi for some – which reminds me, you owe me 3 Galleons and 2 Sickles. Now drink it up and _let’s go_.” Jaehwan hissed.

Seongwoo pinched his nose and gulped the whole thing down in one go. His expression contorted into one of extreme disgust but the potion worked – by the time Seongwoo was done cleaning up and wrestling his bed head into something presentable, the pounding in his head was all but gone.

He managed to make it to breakfast with Jaehwan in tow. Quite a few heads turned his way as he made his way to his usual spot at the Slytherin table but he paid them no mind. Instead, he poured himself a bowl of Pixie Puffs.

It appeared that Seongwoo had arrived in time for the post. A flurry of owls flew into the Great Hall, dropping off mails and parcels for their respective owners. Seongwoo wasn’t expecting any mail as he had yet to reply to his parents’ last letter, so he decided to to focus his attention on Daniel instead.

Right as Seongwoo finally found the pink-haired boy, a familiar red letter was dropped down onto Daniel’s plate. It was a Howler. The Howler started to smoke even as Daniel stared at it, wide-eyed, in disbelief. Seongwoo found it weird, too – wasn’t Daniel a Muggleborn? From next to Seongwoo, Jaehwan snickered and Seongwoo turned to reprimand him but stopped short.

Hold on a second, why did that Howler seem so… familiar? Seongwoo didn’t have time to ponder any deeper about it, though, because one of Daniel’s friends had finally urged him into opening it.

“KANG DANIEL HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?” The Howler shrieked in a very distinct and recognisable voice. Seongwoo felt like dying as the whole Slytherin table slowly turned to look at him.

“YOU TOLD ME TO TAKE YOU ON A DATE TO HONEYDUKES ON THE NEXT HOGSMEADE WEEKEND BUT THEN YOU BLEW ME OFF FOR PARK JIHOON?” At the name of the Slytherin 4th year, everyone swivelled to him instead and Seongwoo felt grateful for the brief distraction. It did nothing to curb the red flush that was starting to creep its way across Seongwoo’s face, though.

“WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT PARK JIHOON ANYWAY? IT’S ALWAYS PARK JIHOON THIS PARK JIHOON THAT. WELL LET ME TELL YOU: BEFORE PARK JIHOON CAME IT WAS ONG SEONGWOO, OKAY? _I_ WAS THE ONE THAT ALL THE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS LIKED.” Well, there went the slight hope Seongwoo had had that Daniel wouldn’t recognise his voice.

“WHY DOES THIS AFFECT ME SO MUCH? YOU WERE THE ONE WHO WANTED THE DATE ANYWAY. WELL, LET ME TELL YOU WHY. IT’S BECAUSE OF YOUR STUPID PINK HAIR AND THE STUPID MOLE UNDER YOUR RIGHT EYE AND YOUR STUPID BUNNY TEETH. IT’S BECAUSE I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THE WAY YOU SMILE AND THE SOUND OF YOUR LAUGHTER. IT’S BECAUSE I LIKE YOU, YOU DUMB OVERGROWN PUPPY!“

That was when the Howler suddenly burst into flames, signalling that the message had ended. Seongwoo’s face was so red by now that he thought he might combust just as the Howler had done so. He couldn’t bear to look at Daniel’s face so he quickly stood up and slung his bag over his head before rushing out of the hall, not heeding the calls of his name.

He ran and ran until he himself wasn’t sure where he was. He found that he was outside an empty classroom, so he went into it and locked the door with a swish of his wand, collapsing onto a chair.

 _Merlin_ , how drunk had he been last night? He could feel some of the memories coming back even though he didn’t really want to remember what dumb things he had done.

 

*

 

 

**Seongwoo was pouting. He was also swirling around a bottle of Firewhiskey while staring unblinkingly at the wooden table. Minhyun and Jaehwan exchanged worried looks.**

**“Seongwoo, what’s wrong?” Minhyun asked gently, as if he were speaking to a toddler (though Seongwoo might as well be one with the childish mentality he had).**

**“ _Everything’s wrong._ ” Seongwoo mumbled, leaning down to place his chin on the table. He looked like he was on the verge of crying – which was weird, because that usually only happened around the 4th bottle of Firewhiskey and Seongwoo was only on his 2nd. It seemed like whatever it was was seriously bothering him.**

**“Okay, but what’s the _most_ wrong?” Jaehwan asked, leaning forward to rest his head against his palm. “The wrong that’s causing you to be so moody on our night out.”**

**That seemed to hit a sore spot for Seongwoo because he curled in on himself, hiding his head with his arms, and whined, “That’s exactly _what’s_ wrong! I shouldn’t be here! I should be in Madam Puddifoot’s with Daniel and holding hands with him and drinking Butterbeer with all the packages of sweets from Honeydukes I bought for him sitting on the floor around us!”**

**“Oh,” was all Jaehwan could seem to say. Even Minhyun looked at a loss for what to say and Minhyun _always_ knew what to say.**

**“Wait, since when did you finally get the guts to ask Daniel out?” Jaehwan looked at Seongwoo like he was trying to figure out a very complicated question. Seongwoo glared at him.**

**“We made a bet. I lost the bet.” Seongwoo took a huge swig from the Firewhiskey bottle. When he didn’t continue to elaborate, Jaehwan motioned with some hand gestures.**

**“And? You lost the bet so how did you make him go on a date with you?”**

**“We made a deal that whoever lost the bet would grant one of the other’s wishes.” Seongwoo slurred, taking another gulp of Firewhiskey. The burning liquid seared his throat but Seongwoo didn’t care – in fact, he welcomed the pain as it made him think less.**

**“And?”**

**“He said he wanted me to bring him on a shopping spree to Honeydukes on our next Hogsmeade weekend. Well, it’s the next Hogsmeade weekend! Why am I here with you two when I should be with him?”**

**“Good question. Why _are_ you here…?”**

**“Well, I went up to him like yesterday and asked him where I should meet him for today. Then he gave me this very sad puppy look and guess what he told me? Guess. You wouldn’t believe it.”**

**“He said he didn’t want to go out with you anymore?”**

**“Well- yeah! That’s basically what he said! Only he sugarcoated it and said that he had promised Jihoon that he would help him out with something. _Park Jihoon_. The 4 th year Slytherin that _everyone_ loves. And then he asked if we could reschedule it or something but I didn’t answer him because- well, I was heartbroken, ok! I was fully prepared to spend all my money on his every whim and desire and I had a whole plan about what we would do after Honeydukes but instead I got you two and the Hog’s Head.” Seongwoo slumped back into his chair.**

**Minhyun and Jaehwan exchanged glances. The nerve of them to do that right in front of him! Couldn’t they have at least _tried_ to do it discreetly? **

**“Well, something _did_ come up unexpectedly,” Minhyun said slowly, trying not to agitate Seongwoo any further. “And he _did_ say he wanted to reschedule it instead of outright cancelling it…”**

**“Yeah, dude! You still have a chance!” Jaehwan reached out and patted Seongwoo on the shoulder comfortingly.**

**“I don’t know…” Seongwoo mumbled to himself despondently as he chugged down the rest of the liquid in the amber bottle he held. “I don’t want to get my hopes up or anything.”**

**Then, to signal the end of the conversation, he turned to the owner of the Hog’s Head and yelled, “Another two bottles of Firewhiskey, please!”**

*****

**Seongwoo ended up drinking 5 bottles of Firewhiskey. His liver and head were going to kill him tomorrow, but it was worth it (at least at that moment it was). His thoughts had finally stopped revolving around Daniel and ceased to exist instead. He stumbled out of the Hog’s Head drunkenly, being supported by Jaehwan and Minhyun, and promptly collapsed onto his knees in the snow.**

**“Don’t move, okay?” Minhyun ordered as he and Jaehwan lifted Seongwoo’s arms off their shoulders. “Jaehwan and I need to do something really quick. We’ll be back soon. _Don’t move_.”**

**Instead of replying, Seongwoo opted to lie down on his side instead, laying his head down on the pile of snow that was conveniently there. Minhyun gave him another concerned look before disappearing to complete his task, Jaehwan following close behind him.**

**Seongwoo lay there for a moment. Then, all of a sudden, he felt compelled to see just what Daniel had needed to help Jihoon with. He knew they were in Hogsmeade as well – he had seen them on his way here, talking and laughing together. It had been main reason behind Seongwoo’s need for intoxication instead of clarity.**

**He pushed himself up and, wobbling, made his way to the Three Broomsticks. There, he proceeded to push his face against the glass window and squinted in an attempt to find Jihoon and Daniel in it, making a sound of frustration when the window fogged up under his breath.**

**And there they were – the two of them, snuggled together in a booth at the back, facing each other. Seongwoo could see Daniel laughing at something Jihoon had said and it made him feel even shittier than he already did. That was supposed to be _him_ and Daniel – _would_ have been if Daniel hadn’t suddenly ditched him for Jihoon. What was it about Jihoon that Daniel liked, anyway? Was it his humour? Was it how Jihoon was much shorter than Daniel? Was it Jihoon’s pretty sparkling eyes that made everyone fall in love with him?**

**The more Seongwoo thought about it, the angrier and more upset he got. This was when a sudden idea struck him and he made the rashest and dumbest decision he had ever made in his whole 17 years of living.**

**Somehow, he managed to stagger his way to Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop (though not without almost falling over at least 5 times along the way). He stepped tipsily into the shop, eyes roaming over the writing supplies until they finally found the familiar red envelopes that were his target.**

**After having wailed out his sorrows and suppressed feelings to Daniel, Seongwoo paid for the Howler with a satisfied smile on his face. He made it out of the shop without knocking anything over (miraculously) and tried to skip his way to the Post Office, only to find that while his head might feel light, the rest of his body certainly wasn’t; so, he gave up and decided to just teeter his way there instead.**

**Before he could arrive at the Post Office, he was halted by two figures. Seongwoo squinted at them, trying to recognise them, and beamed at them when he realised they were Minhyun and Jaehwan.**

**“Seongwoo! There you are!” Minhyun exclaimed in relief. “We’ve been looking all over for you!”**

**“Dude, we told you to not move. That wasn’t cool, man. You almost gave us a heart attack.” Jaehwan reprimanded him, crossing his arms across his chest.**

**“Where did you go?” Minhyun demanded. Then, he looked at Seongwoo’s hands and found them clutching a red envelope. “Is that a Howler?”**

**“How in the name of Merlin’s beard did you get your hands on this?” Jaehwan wondered. “You’re _drunk_ and Scrivenshaft’s is like, on the other side of town from the Hog’s Head!”**

**All of a sudden, Seongwoo felt like puking his guts out. So that’s what he did – he leaned around Minhyun and proceeded to empty his stomach out onto the snow in the form of green vomit. Jaehwan wrinkled his nose in disgust while Seongwoo moaned, feeling very sick.**

**“Oh, you poor thing,” Minhyun looked at Seongwoo sympathetically. He knew how horrible being drunk was, having been the victim once too many times before. “Let’s get you back to Hogwarts.”**

**“No!” Seongwoo suddenly regained his strength and tore himself out of Minhyun’s hold, almost tumbling to the ground in the process. “’m need to post this out!”**

**“Okay… so after you post it, then you’ll go back to Hogwarts?” Seongwoo nodded in response to the question and immediately wished he hadn’t when a dizzy spell hit him.**

**“Alright, who’s the unfortunate recipient of your wrath and anger? Jaehwan will post it for you.” Minhyun said while prying the letter out of Seongwoo’s fingers. When he finally succeeded in doing so, he passed it to Jaehwan.**

**“Send it to Daniel,” was what Seongwoo attempted to slur out, but ended up jumbling it into a mess of words instead. Thankfully, Daniel’s name was decipherable enough (which probably had something to do with the countless times it had rolled off Seongwoo’s tongue).**

**Jaehwan exchanged a look with Minhyun. Minhyun nudged him towards the Post Office and so Jaehwan went, sighing along the way.**

**A few minutes later, Jaehwan returned letter-less. He lifted up Seongwoo’s other arm over his shoulder and he and Minhyun began their way back to Hogwarts. Somewhere along the way, Seongwoo finally gave in to the clutches of sleep and that was where his memories stopped.**

*

 

Seongwoo felt like dying.

No, he wasn’t being overly dramatic this time. He had really gone and fucked up big time. This was a 100% worse than the time he had offered Daniel help for DADA homework when he had been doing Transfiguration. Now, the whole school knew about his gigantic crush on Daniel – including Daniel himself (which was the _worst_ part). He was going to have to transfer to another school; maybe Ilvermony would accept him. Or he could always learn French and go to Beauxbatons. Was there a spell or magical device that could instantly translate French to English?

Seongwoo felt furious at himself. How could past him have been so dumb and reckless? Weren’t those qualities of a Gryffindor? Though the Sorting Hat _did_ debate between Gryffindor or Slytherin for him… Still! He was Sorted to Slytherin in the end – that should count for something, right? Apparently, getting drunk was all that was needed for his inner Gryffindor to take charge.

This wasn’t the way he had wanted Daniel to find out about his crush on him. He hadn’t planned a confession or anything but using a Howler had definitely never even crossed his mind. How could he have screwed up so badly?

He sat there in the dark classroom alone for Merlin knew how long. Seongwoo knew he was missing classes that he shouldn’t be but he just couldn’t bring himself to face anyone at the moment. He needed time to himself.

Time passed; slowly, fast – Seongwoo had no idea. He wasn’t exactly keeping track of time. It was only when his stomach grumbled that he realised that he hadn’t eaten anything except a few spoonfuls of Pixie Puffs.

By now, Seongwoo’s mindset had slowly gone from ‘I’m going to have to transfer out of Hogwarts’ to a more defiant ‘Who cares anyway? So what if I like him?’ and he was now ready to face the world again (or at least he thought so). He decided he would make a trip to the kitchens and ask for some comfort food, like a few pints of ice-cream or waffles or chocolate or maybe all three.

Taking a deep breath, he unlocked the door with a whispered “Alohomora” and peeked out of the classroom in both directions before deeming it safe to walk out.

Seongwoo didn’t recognise this part of the castle at all. He supposed he never had classes here and thus would have no reason to pass through, but it was still a little unnerving to know there were still places left unexplored despite him having spent 6 years here.

Had he come from the right? Seongwoo scratched his head in mild confusion and walked a little ways down the hallway, hoping to find some familiar landmark that would help him locate where he was. No such luck. It was like a neverending hallway and Seongwoo was honestly starting to get a little creeped out. The lack of any signs of life contributed to the creepy factor as well – though the students were probably in the middle of their afternoon classes.

He started to walk faster. He didn’t exactly break into a sprint, but his footsteps definitely quickened until he was practically jogging. Wow, had he really come this far? Seongwoo couldn’t seem to recognise any of the places he had passed and he was starting to wonder if he had come from the other way instead.

There was a corner up ahead and Seongwoo felt hope again. Maybe around it was something or someone familiar and he could finally stop feeling so damn lost-

“Oof!”

 _Ow._ That hurt. A lot.

Seongwoo rubbed the back of his head, which had collided with the wall when he had crashed into the other person, wincing. That was definitely going to leave a bump. He looked up at the other victim, who had landed on the floor as well, about to apologise but the words died on his tongue when he saw that he had just crashed into Park Jihoon.

He would run, but Jihoon had already made eye contact with him. Well, he supposed he could run anyway, seeing as Jihoon hadn’t said anything. Yet.

Seongwoo stood up quickly, and was about to pass Jihoon when he realised he had no idea where he was. He stopped short and had a small inner debate with himself if he should just forgo any bits of dignity and pride left in order to ensure he didn’t end up lost and dead.

In the end, Seongwoo’s survival streak (and his stomach) won. He grudgingly turned to face Jihoon, who had also gotten up and looked to be in deep thought, and asked, “Where am I?”

Jihoon looked at him quizzically. “Uh- seventh floor. The corridor you came from leads to the Gryffindor common room.”

“Alright, thanks. And sorry for bumping into you.” Seongwoo said hurriedly, giving Jihoon a quick, fake smile. He was about to leave when Jihoon stopped him.

“Wait, sunbae. I need to tell you something.” Jihoon hesitated, looking like he was having an inner struggle.

Seongwoo lifted an eyebrow and waited for him to continue. Jihoon looked around them to check if anyone else was there. Apparently, he was satisfied because he turned back to Seongwoo and declared, “I think you misunderstood about me and Daniel hyung’s relationship.”

At the mention of Daniel’s name, Seongwoo felt an arrow stab his heart though he managed to keep up the smile. “Oh, I did? Sorry if I made it awkward between you two; maybe you haven’t moved on to being official yet-“

“No, sunbae, you’re wrong.” Jihoon cut Seongwoo off, looking visibly agitated. “There’s nothing going on between me and Daniel hyung.”

Seongwoo stared at Jihoon blankly. “But I- the both of you were alone together in the Three Broomsticks. Daniel cancelled on me so he could go with you.”

“Yeah, sorry about that, sunbae.” Jihoon grimaced, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. “I asked Daniel hyung for some advice regarding a matter but I didn’t know he had already made plans with you… if I had known, I wouldn’t have asked, really!”

Seongwoo didn’t quite know how to process this new information. “So… you and Daniel aren’t dating?”

Jihoon let a snort escape him before regaining and composing himself. “No, we aren’t. I… already have someone else I like.” Jihoon’s lips pulled into one of the most genuine smiles Seongwoo had ever seen on him.

Waves of relief crashed into Seongwoo. Daniel and Jihoon weren’t dating, after all. Maybe he still had a chance – if he hadn’t fucked it up already. Nothing could possibly destroy Seongwoo’s mood now, though; he felt like he was soaring in the skies.

He needed to talk to Daniel immediately – to clear up the misunderstanding and also to give Daniel the proper confession he deserved.

“Jihoon, do you know where Daniel is right now?” Seongwoo asked, a serious look in his eyes.

Jihoon thought about it for a moment. “I think he just finished his last class, which is Charms.”

“Thank you,” Seongwoo grinned at Jihoon before running down the staircase near them. Halfway down them, he paused and turned around to wave at Jihoon. “I’m sorry, by the way!”

“It’s fine!” Jihoon yelled back.

Then, they went on their separate ways.

Seongwoo was excited and also nervous as heck. He felt like a schoolgirl who was finally taking the big step of confessing to her longtime crush. His mind wandered to numerous conversation starters even as he practically leaped down staircases and ran through the corridors.

What would he say first? A ‘hi’ or a ‘hello’ sounded too stifling and awkward. But would it be rude to not greet him? Maybe he should use that word he had come across, ‘yo’, instead. Actually, scratch that – it sounded weird.

By the time Seongwoo caught a glimpse of the pink hair, his mind had gone through various possible scenarios already. Yet, the moment Daniel entered his line of vision, his mind automatically went blank.

Daniel was surrounded by his group of friends. Out of the 4 of them that were clustered around Daniel, Seongwoo only recognised half – the 6th year Hufflepuff that was known as the ‘mother hen’, Yoon Jisung, and his boyfriend, the 6th year Gryffindor Chaser named Ha Sungwoon. They seemed to have noticed his presence, for their chatter and laughter abruptly died down. Jisung nudged an oblivious and confused Daniel and gestured to Seongwoo’s direction.

Then, Daniel looked at him and their eyes met.

Seongwoo decided to take the initiative. He walked up to their group, armed with his usual charisma. “Hi, can I talk to Daniel for a while?” He inquired, smiling politely at them. The group exchanged glances with each other.

“Uh, sure! You can have him; just return him when you’re done.” Jisung finally answered. He patted Daniel on the back, as if to say “have strength!” before he and the others left.

They stood there in silence for a while. Seongwoo was still trying to think of the prelude to his main act, the Confession Scene, but his brain was failing him at one of the most important times of his life. He decided to just wing it.

“About this morning-“

“Hyung, I have something to tell you-“

They stared at each other, and burst into laughter not long after. Seongwoo felt a weight lift off his chest as he watched Daniel giggle away like nothing had happened.

“You can go first, hyung.” Daniel smiled at Seongwoo after he stopped giggling.

Seongwoo took a deep breath. Well, here goes nothing.

“As you probably know by now from that Howler this morning, I like you.” Seongwo started off, his voice slightly trembling from how anxious he was. “And I really, _really_ like you. I’ve had this humongous crush on you for like 2 years and apparently I’m really obvious so I’m actually surprised you didn’t know about it earlier?

I like how caring and compassionate you are. I’ve seen you helping younger kids with their homework and Quidditch techniques and giving them the occasional advice and you’ve never turned any of them away even when you’re tired. I admire how you always try to look on the positive side of everything and how, even when everyone else is being a downer, you try to lighten up the mood. The first time I noticed you was during your first Quidditch match. You were so focused and determined and it was such a sharp contrast to how you normally were so I remember I was caught by surprise. That day, you made my heart beat a little abnormally faster and I started to pay more attention to you.

This year, I got to know you more and that has only made me fall even more for you. You laughed at my horrible pickup line when any other person would have probably decked me for it. You complimented the sweater I knitted for you even though it was ugly and you even wear it sometimes on the weekends. I’m thankful that you trusted me enough to let down your walls and confide in me that night on the Astronomy Tower.

Most of all, I’m sorry for what happened this morning, because that wasn’t how I wanted you to find out that I like you. It’s just that I was heartbroken and jealous and drunk at the same time and that combination never bodes well. I was planning some grand gesture or just a simple romantic confession but drunk me had to go and ruin things and here I am, trying to fix it now.

What I’m trying to say, Kang Daniel, is that I really, _really_ like you and I would like to go on dates with you to Hogsmeade and to hold your hand and cuddle with you by the fireplace in either one of our common rooms. So, will you go out with me?” Seongwoo finished off with his signature smile. His heart was pounding so fast it was going to burst out of his chest any minute now and run for the hills.

Daniel looked like his brain had fizzled and shut down on him from the information overload. He opened his mouth to say something but then closed it. Then, he did it again. And again. He looked like a rather cute goldfish. A goldfish that was getting increasingly pink around his cheeks.

Finally, he seemed to have regain his senses just as the trepidation was getting to Seongwoo. “C-can you say that again?” Daniel stuttered out, the blush darkening in colour. “The last part.”

“Will you go out with me?” Seongwoo obliged. He couldn’t help but smile at Daniel’s adorable request.

“Yes! I will.” Daniel grinned, showcasing his endearing bunny teeth. Seongwoo couldn’t help it anymore so he swept the younger boy into a bone-crushing hug. Daniel squeaked cutely, caught by surprise.

After a while, Seongwoo finally released Daniel from the hug, still grinning at him. “This Saturday, what do you say we have that trip to Honeydukes I owe you?” Seongwoo couldn’t stop grinning – how could he? Daniel had actually _agreed_ to go out with him. Did that make them boyfriends? Were they now an official thing? Seongwoo brushed it off; that didn’t matter, not now at least.

“Sure!” Daniel beamed at him and Seongwoo thought he might go blind from how bright Daniel’s smile was. “It’s a date!”

They stood there for a while, smiling at each other like idiots. Some students walking past them gave them weirded out looks, but Seongwoo couldn’t care less. Today was definitely the _best_ day of his life.

(“Oh, by the way, what were you going to say when I cut you off earlier?”

“Um, well… I was going to say that… I really, _really_ like you too, but you beat me to it.”

“Say it again.”

“What, ‘you beat me to it’?”

“No, obviously not that. You know which part I meant. I’ve waited almost 3 years to hear it so please indulge me.”

“Fine. I really, _really_ like you, Ong Seongwoo. How’s that?”

“Hm, it’s like music to my ears~”

“Ah, don’t be so cheesy, hyung!”

“But you like it when I am!”

“True. But that’s because I really, _really_ like you, hyung.”

“And I really, _really_ like you too, Kang Daniel.”)

 

 

_7._

 

Five days had passed since Seongwoo had asked Daniel to go out with him and Daniel had said yes. Seongwoo still couldn’t really believe it – it felt surreal and too good to be true. They had established a sort of schedule – whenever they both had free time, they would meet by the portrait of a fruit bowl that led to the kitchens. From there on, they would then decide what to do.

(So far, Seongwoo had learned that Daniel had brought two cats to Hogwarts instead of the one he was allowed (he had snuck it in through his luggage, apparently), and that they were called Peter and Rooney. Daniel had gone on to explain that Peter came from Peter Parker, who was a Muggle “superhero” called Spiderman, and that Rooney was his favourite football (a Muggle sport) player. Seongwoo had also learned that Daniel was bad at differentiating male cats from female cats, given how both Peter and Rooney were named under the assumption they were male but were actually female.)

Today was special, though. It was a Hogsmeade weekend – which meant Seongwoo would finally get to take Daniel on their very first official date. Seongwoo was beside himself with excitement – that much was evident from how he kept tossing and turning in his bed the night before, unable to fall asleep what with all the anticipation flowing through his veins.

“Do you think I should wear this,” Seongwoo flicked his wand and a outfit consisting of a leather jacket over a white shirt, paired with ripped black jeans was levitated. “Or this?” Another flick of the wand and the first outfit was set down, and a second one was lifted up to show an oversized grey hoodie and some tight-fitting denim jeans.

Seongwoo had had this dilemma for over an hour now. He had showered and everything – now all that was left was his clothing choice.

Jaehwan looked like he was seriously considering the two options as best as he could from where he was leaning on his bed post. “So it’s either the gangster look or the soft boyfriend look?” He hummed, getting up from his previous position and walking over to take a better look.

“Well, I don’t really know which one Daniel would prefer on me…” Seongwoo trailed off as he set down the hoodie and jeans. He walked over to his part of the closet he shared with Jaehwan and started going through it. “Or maybe I should wear a different one?”

“I think you should wear the hoodie. The leather jacket gives the false impression that you’re actually _cool_.” Seongwoo could practically hear the smirk in Jaehwan’s words. “Besides, it’s cold. Maybe he’ll wear a hoodie too and you two can match like other couples do.”

This only served to send Seongwoo into a daydream where he and Daniel actually had couple hoodies and Daniel’s sweaterpaw was linked around his arm and Daniel was smiling at him in that adorable way of his and-

“Earth to Seongwoo?” Jaehwan called, effectively snapping Seongwoo out of his trance. “I bet you were thinking about him again. Merlin, I thought you would get better after finally getting with Daniel but you got _worse_.”

“You’re just jealous, Jaehwan.” Seongwoo stuck out his tongue, not caring at how childish that move was. “By the way, how are things going with Minhyun? Is he as oblivious as ever about your extremely obvious pining?”

“Well, things are as they have always been.” Jaehwan sighed, sitting back down onto his bed. “Except he’s dating that Japanese girl from Gryffindor now.”

“Oh.” Seongwoo didn’t know what else to say. He suddenly felt like a grade A arsehole for having been so insensitive and unobservant.

Jaehwan seemed to have sensed that the mood of the room had suddenly gone awkward because he quickly brushed over it. “Ah, no, don’t let my pathetic self ruin your big day, okay? Now, weren’t you in the middle of choosing an outfit? I really think you should take my advice and go with the soft boyfriend look because 1) it’s cold outside and 2) Daniel has a liking for cute, soft things.” Jaehwan rambled in a rush, wanting to get rid of the atmosphere he had created earlier. Seongwoo felt a sudden surge of gratitude for his best friend.

“Thank you, Jaehwan-ah.” Seongwoo smiled – both his words and smile were so sincere that Jaehwan was taken aback for a moment.

“Don’t mention it; isn’t this what best friends are for?” Jaehwan waved it off but Seongwoo could see that his cheeks had pinked. “Now put on your hoodie. You don’t want to be late to your first date, do you?”

 

*

 

An hour later, Seongwoo stood beside the portrait leading to the kitchens, dressed in the grey hoodie and tight jeans he had picked out earlier, with a winter coat folded on his forearm. His hair had been strategically styled by Jaehwan to look just the right amount of messy, and he had sprayed on some of his expensive cologne.

Seongwoo felt extremely nervous. This was going to be their first official date and Seongwoo was scared he might mess it up or something. He wanted it to be perfect for Daniel so they could look back on it fondly together in the future after they had gotten married and adopted 5 children – 3 boys and 2 girls.

Footsteps were approaching. Seongwoo perked up, peering towards the side they were coming from expectantly. To his disappointment, the footsteps didn’t belong to Daniel, but to two Ravenclaws: Yoo Seonho – the self-proclaimed president of the Hwang Minhyun fanclub – and Lai Guanlin. Those two were practically inseparable.

“Hi, Ong sunbae!” Seonho waved cheerily at him, a skip in his steps. Guanlin mumbled a soft greeting as well, followed by a dip of the head.

“Hey!” Seongwoo smiled at them and stepped aside to let them access the passage to the kitchens. “Getting your second meal for the day?”

“Third, actually.” Seonho replied as he tickled the pear, which laughed and turned into a doorknob. “By the way, congrats on finally dating Daniel hyung!”

Before Seongwoo could ask Seonho how he knew about that, the two Ravenclaws had already disappeared through the passageway behind the portrait. Were they really that obvious, Seongwoo wondered as he resumed his previous position to continue waiting for Daniel to meet him.

Not long after, Daniel finally arrived, though he appeared to have been in quite a rush, judging from how he had accidentally collided into Seongwoo.

“Oops! Sorry, hyung!” Daniel managed to get out in between gasps for breath.

Seongwoo was a bit dazed after having received an armful of cute, breathless puppy and thus was not able to reply with anything but a “Hi”. He took in Daniel and his outfit for the day, eyes raking over the slightly tousled pink hair, to the sweater Seongwoo had knitted him for his birthday, and to the black jeans that hugged his thighs snugly.

“Why are you wearing that ugly sweater?” Seongwoo frowned. For some reason, Daniel had made the sweater into one of his favourite clothes to wear. It was like a sore reminder to Seongwoo of the bad choices that he made in his life.

Daniel gave a scandalised gasp, as if Seongwoo had offended him. “How could you say that about Spidey, hyung?” Seongwoo assumed that Daniel had named the cat on the front of the sweater as Spidey. _How cute_. “And it’s not ugly! In fact, I love wearing it so much because hyung made it for me.”

Daniel ended his exclamation with a big smile. Seongwoo pretended to gag at how cheesy Daniel had been and Daniel slapped his arm playfully.

“I’m being serious here, hyung!” Daniel puffed his cheeks, crossing his arms in front of his chest and turning his face away from Seongwoo.

Seongwoo couldn’t resist squishing those cute, chubby cheeks so that’s exactly what he did. “Daniel-ah~” Seongwoo gave him an eye-smile and Daniel couldn’t resist smiling back. “You can make anything look good on you, but that doesn’t change the fact that the sweater is ugly~”

This only served to increase the puffiness of Daniel’s cheeks. He glared playfully at Seongwoo, who was still grinning like crazy.

“Ahh, come on Daniel~” Seongwoo poked the puffy cheeks in front of him. “Ok, fine, I’m sorry for calling Spidey ugly. Please forgive me?”

Seongwoo’s smiles were seriously infectious and Daniel found himself battling off the urge to give in and let the corners of his lips twitch up. Finally, he gave up and let the smile take over his features.

“Fine, I’ll forgive you, but on one condition.”

“And what might that be, your Highness?” Seongwoo bowed. “This lowly knight lives only to serve and please you.”

“I want another cat!” Daniel’s eyes were _sparkling_ at the mere thought of that. Seongwoo had always thought that sparkling eyes were Park Jihoon’s thing (along with the infamous wink) but maybe Daniel had learned the trick after hanging out with Jihoon.

“… Now, that wish may be a bit difficult to grant, your Highness. See, you have _two_ , and that’s _already_ against the school rules.”

“So?” Daniel pouted. “It’s not like they can take them away from me.”

“Still. I cannot, in good conscience, help you to break a school rule even further.”

“Pleaseee, hyung?” Daniel’s ultimate move, the Puppy Eyes, was now in full use.

“Oh my, would you look at the time! We had best get going!” Seongwoo averted his eyes from Daniel’s, knowing full well his resolve would crumble away if he made direct eye contact with the Puppy Eyes. He took hold of Daniel’s hand and intertwined their fingers, his heart skipping a beat as he did so (he could finally fulfill his dreams!), and started pulling Daniel along towards the place they were supposed to gather at before going to Hogsmeade.

On their way there, Daniel eventually gave up on persuading Seongwoo to buy him a cat that Seongwoo would pretend was his if anyone asked, and instead took to pouting instead. Seongwoo was beyond tempted to kiss the pout away but he restrained himself from doing so.

You haven’t even gone on the first date yet, Seongwoo reminded himself even as he eyed Daniel’s pretty pout. His lips were just so _pink_ and inviting. Seongwoo shook his head in an attempt to get rid of the thoughts that were going down a dangerous and inappropriate path.

“Mr. Kang and Mr. Ong, permission slips please.” Professor McGonagall said as she walked over to them with a clipboard in one hand and a quill in the other. Seongwoo produced his from one of the pockets in his jeans, as did Daniel, and handed his together with Daniel’s to her. She took the slips and marked something on her clipboard before moving on to the next student.

Soon enough, Professor McGonagall finished checking over all the students who would be going to Hogsmeade and announced that they could go. This seemed to make Daniel forget about Seongwoo’s ‘betrayal’ and he reverted to his default mode – being an excited puppy.

“I’m so excited, hyung!” Daniel had his bunny teeth smile on and looked as if it was his first time going to Hogsmeade.

“Me too.” Seongwoo smiled back at Daniel, noticing how Daniel hadn’t brought along a coat or another layer of clothes. He felt slightly worried even as he slipped on his own coat. Still, he supposed he could always strip it off for Daniel and cast a Warming Charm on his own clothes if it came down to it.

Daniel was walking with a skip to his steps, his arms swinging with every step he took. On impulse, Seongwoo grabbed Daniel’s hand and laced their fingers together. Daniel looked at him, surprise evident in his eyes.

“Is this okay?” Seongwoo asked, the smile on his lips as soft as his words.

“Y-yeah!” Daniel stuttered out, eyes wide and cheeks pink. His eyes wandered down to their interlinked hands and he turned even redder.

Seongwoo felt almost giddy from the rush of happiness that flowed through his veins. _He_ had been the one to make Daniel blush – how crazy was that? Seongwoo felt like he was the luckiest man in the universe.

Over the 6 years he had studied at Hogwarts, Seongwoo had gone on almost every Hogsmeade trip when he could. Still, the sight of the small village with cottages and shops with snowy roofs never failed to amaze him. The shops had all been frequented by Seongwoo at least once, especially the one they were about to enter: Honeydukes.

As he and Daniel stepped into the sweet-shop, there was a tinkling sound from the bell above the door and they were hit by a blast of warm air. Seongwoo decided to just keep his coat on because he was sure he would need his hands free for this Honeydukes visit.

The shop was full of shelves and shelves of confectionaries. Lined against a wall were boxes of toffees, treacle fudge and different kinds of chocolates. On the wall opposite were the sweets that had special effects – Ice Mice, Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, Peppermint Toads, Sugar Quills and exploding bonbons. On the floor were barrels and barrels of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, Liquorice Wands, Fizzing Whizzbees and Chocolate Frogs. And that wasn’t where the list of treats the sweet-shop carried ended; there were also Acid Pops, blood-flavoured lollipops, Jelly Slugs and more.

Daniel’s eyes were wide-eyed with wonder and he looked like he was having trouble deciding where he should start. Seongwoo went to retrieve a basket from besides the counter and squeezed his way past countless other students back to Daniel, who was still standing at the entrance like a lost puppy.

“Hey, you okay?” Seongwoo asked, casually linking his arm through Daniel’s.

Daniel turned to him, eyes big. “Hyung… I don’t know where to start,” Daniel confessed. If Seongwoo didn’t know better, he would have thought this was Daniel’s first time at Honeydukes.

(It wasn’t. Seongwoo had heard the rumour circulating Daniel’s first Honeydukes visit – apparently, the owner’s wife had taken a liking to him and had given him a free bag of treats in addition to his purchases.)

“Hm… then let me help you – how about the gummies section?” Seongwoo suggested, guiding Daniel towards the back. There were gummies in every shape and colour imaginable and Seongwoo could see Daniel’s eyes sparkling.

“Can we buy this whole section?” Daniel asked, his eyes not leaving the gummies for even a moment.

“Ah- I don’t think I have enough Galleons for that… And are you sure you don’t want any of the other candies? Choose wisely, Kang Daniel.” Seongwoo advised in a serious tone, adopting an old man’s voice towards the end.

One would think that Daniel was having to make the toughest decision of his life with the way he was contemplating his options, scrunching up his face cutely as he did so. Seongwoo watched on with a fond smile.

“Hyung~ This is such a hard choice~” Daniel whined, pouting, even as he started to fill up the basket with packs and packs of gummy bears. “Ah! They have new flavours! I want this and this one too~ And this… And that one!”

At the end of it, Seongwoo and Daniel were both holding two baskets each (ok, so maybe one basket was for Seongwoo himself) and Seongwoo was mentally preparing himself for the total cost as they placed the baskets down on the countertop. Mrs Flume, the owner’s wife, looked up and smiled when she saw Daniel.

“Daniel! You finally came back to visit me!” She exclaimed as she started to total up the baskets of sweets.

“Hi, Mrs Flume!” Daniel beamed at her. “How has business been?”

“Even better now because of you,” Mrs Flume chuckled. She swished her wand and the sweets from the basket were magically levitated into two big bags. “That’ll be 40 Galleons, 9 Sickles and 19 Knuts.”

Daniel turned to look at Seongwoo with an expectant smile, so he sighed as he took out his money pouch and started to count out the coins.

“Oh, are you two together?” Mrs Flume asked with a knowing smile on her face. Daniel flushed red and started to stammer.

Seongwoo decided to step in to save Daniel who looked like he was going to combust from how red he was getting. “Yes, we are. I’m Ong Seongwoo, nice to meet you, Mrs Flume.” He smiled as he handed Mrs Flume their owed total.

“It’s certainly a pleasure to meet you too, Seongwoo. Treat Daniel well and come visit me again next time!” Mrs Flume bid them goodbye and Seongwoo gave her one last smile, took the two bags bursting with sweets and led a flustered Daniel out of the sweet-shop, the bell tinkling above them to signal their leave.

“How do you feel about getting a coffee?” Seongwoo asked, partly to diffuse the silence and partly because he wanted to get cosy with Daniel at Madam Puddifoot’s.

“S-sure!” Daniel squeaked out, cheeks and ears still tomato red.

Seongwoo led them off the High Street and down a side road to a small, pink tea shop. The windows were fogged up and there was a wooden sign painted green overhead that read ‘Madam Puddifoot’s’ in the same shade of pink the tea shop was painted with. When they pushed open the door, the bell over the door tinkled, announcing their arrival.

The shop was small and cramped, ensuring that couples were within close proximity of each other. Seongwoo and Daniel had a bit of difficulty in manoeuvring their way to a round table draped in white tablecloth in the corner. They sat facing each other, after Seongwoo had shed his coat and hung it on the back of his chair, with the Honeydukes bags on the floor besides them.

After placing their orders, Seongwoo turned his attention back to the puppy opposite him, who was looking around with an expression of wonder on his face.

“Is this your first time here?” Seongwoo asked casually. Jaehwan had given him some advice on how to subtly ask if Daniel had had any romantic partners before.

“Yep!” Daniel nodded enthusiastically, largely resembling an excited puppy that had just gotten a new toy. “I’ve only heard stories about it from Jisung hyung and Sungwoon hyung before...”

“Well, does it fulfill all your expectations?” A cheeky grin had curled itself on Seongwoo’s lips as he yelled “Yes!” mentally and did a victory dance in his head.

Daniel gave another affirmative nod. Madam Puddifoot chose this moment to swoop in with their orders, placing the cups of coffee in front of them, before leaving just as swiftly to serve other couples.

Their coffee had arrived with latte art on it. There were two boys, each resembling one of them on their respective cups, and when the cups were pushed together, they walked towards the edges of the cup and held each other’s hands. The boy that resembled Seongwoo turned to face them and gave a mischevious wink, hearts appearing in the spare space around them.

Daniel was in awe. His eyes were so wide that Seongwoo was sure if they went any wider, his eyeballs might just pop out of their sockets. He turned to face Seongwoo, who was just as impressed as he was.

“Wow, I don’t think I can drink my coffee anymore.” Seongwoo admitted finally, after the silence dragged on for too long.

“I wish I had my phone so I could take a video of it…” Daniel pouted, staring sadly at their cups that were still pushed together.

“Ah, right. Your electronic devices don’t work with magic, right?” Seongwoo attempted to distract himself from Daniel’s lips. This was the second time today he was looking at them and thinking sinful thoughts.

“Sadly, no. I’ve tried some spells to get it to work with it but I guess magic and science just don’t mix.” Daniel sighed. He stared longingly at the coffee, where the latte art was replaying itself.

“It’s okay, I’ll learn how to do magical latte art for you.” Seongwoo proudly proclaimed even as his brain screamed at him internally. “Then you can see it every day. In fact, you might even get bored of it.”

“Really?” Daniel looked at him with such hopeful puppy eyes that left Seongwoo with no room to say no.

“Yes, really.” Seongwoo smiled. He pulled his cup of coffee away from Daniel’s (the coffee-Seongwoo had a panicked expression on as he did so, reaching out futilely for coffee-Daniel) and took a sip from it before he could dig his grave any deeper.

Having witnessed coffee-Seongwoo’s death, coffee-Daniel started to cry and the hearts that were previously floating in the air around him broke apart. Daniel looked heartbroken as he stared at coffee-Daniel weep over the death of his lover.

“Maybe you should put him out of his misery?” Seongwoo suggested, feeling weirdly guilty for having instigated the breakup of coffee-Daniel and coffee-Seongwoo’s relationship.

Daniel reached out for the cup of coffee and brought it to his lips to take a sip. His previously despondent expression immediately lit up at his first taste of the coffee and he let out a pleasurable sound.

“Mm! This coffee is good!” Daniel proclaimed before continuing to drink all of it up. Seongwoo lifted his cup up as well, though it was partly to hide the lovesick smile that was on the verge of coming into existence.

Daniel had long since finished drinking his coffee by the time Seongwoo was done with his, so he had been telling Seongwoo about how he had managed to sneak both Peter and Rooney into Hogwarts, and Seongwoo had nodded and made affirmative noises at all the correct parts.

“… and so I put Rooney into my backpack and carried her with me for the whole journey until we got to the Hufflepuff dorms. She didn’t even meow once!” Daniel finished off with a proud smile on his face. It was purely coincidental that that was when Seongwoo finished off his coffee as well (he _definitely_ hadn’t timed his sips with Daniel’s story just so Daniel wouldn’t feel like he needed to rush his story because he was keeping them there).

“You seem very proud of yourself for breaking a school rule, Mr. Kang,” Seongwoo smirked devilishly. “What would Professor Sprout say about this? Tsk tsk.”

“Well, it’s not like she’s going to find out…” Daniel puffed his cheeks cutely and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re not going to tell her, are you? If you do and one of my babies gets taken away from me, I’m breaking up with you.”

Seongwoo gave a mocking, mildly surprised gasp. “Breaking school rules _and_ threatening a fellow student? The list just keeps going…”

“Are you teasing me?” Daniel pouted and, once again, Seongwoo’s eyes dropped to his lips. They were still a glossy pink even though Daniel had just had a cup of coffee. Maybe he had used a lipbalm that stayed on even after consuming food and drink. Whatever it was, it was doing its job well because no matter how hard Seongwoo tried, he couldn’t keep his eyes from reverting back to Daniel’s lips that were just begging to be kissed. “You’re not really going to expose my Rooney and Peter, are you?”

Daniel was starting to look disconcerted, as if he believed that Seongwoo was capable of doing something that would break his heart. If only Daniel knew just how _smitten_ Seongwoo was with him.

“Relax, I was just joking.” Seongwoo smiled reassuringly (hopefully that was what it looked like) at Daniel. “You know I would never deliberately do anything to make you upset, right? That would be like breaking my own heart.”

This seemed to elicit a blush from Daniel. “I-I… um… I… guess so?” Then, in an attempt to cover up his reaction, Daniel whined, “Hyung, why are you so cheesy?”

“I’m only cheesy for you, the life of my love~” Seongwoo singsonged, using a Muggle phrase he had come across that was pretty popular.

Daniel burst out giggling. “Hyung, it’s ‘love of my life’, not ‘life of my love’.”

“Ah, really?” Seongwoo scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, feeling a red flush creep up his neck. “Ahhh, pretend you didn’t hear it.”

“Hehe, no way. I’m going to remember this for the rest of my life.” Daniel couldn’t stop giggling and Seongwoo was reminded of just how infatuated he was when he realised that he wouldn’t mind embarrassing himself a million more times over if it meant he could hear that laugh.

“Oh? It’s snowing! Hyung, it’s snowing!” Daniel hit Seongwoo’s shoulder lightly, bringing his attention to the white fluff that was dropping from the sky outside the tea shop.

“Wow, it really is! Do you want to go now? I’ll go pay then we can go out and play in the snow.” Seongwoo said, standing up and putting his coat back on.

“Huh? No, hyung, it’s my turn to pay.” Daniel took out his wallet and stood up as well, fully intending to go to the counter to pay.

“Wait-“ Seongwoo struggled to get his coat on properly. By the time he was done, Daniel was already lining up at the counter. Sighing, Seongwoo took the Honeydukes shopping bags and went to join Daniel.

“I _did_ say I would pay for our date before.” Seongwoo reminded Daniel when he reached him.

“No, hyung, you said you would pay for our Honeydukes trip, not all of our date expenses.” Daniel corrected him.

“I-“ Seongwoo was stumped. Daniel was right – he hadn’t mentioned anything past Honeydukes. Still, it felt wrong for Daniel to pay for part of the date that Seongwoo had wanted to take him on.

Sensing Seongwoo’s hesitation, Daniel added on, “Let me pay for this at least, hyung. Besides, I spent a lot of your money at Honeydukes already and I feel bad…”

And Seongwoo found himself falling even deeper for Kang Daniel. How could someone be so conscious and gentlemanly? Seongwoo felt like falling in love with Daniel was like falling into a black hole – there was no stopping.

“Thank you, Niel-ah.” The nickname slipped out before Seongwoo realised it and when he did, it was too late.

“It’s nothing, hyung.” Daniel’s cheeks were visibly flushed. “I-I wanted to go on this date as much as you did so it’s only fair we split the costs.”

After Daniel had finished paying, they exited the tea shop only to be greeted by the cold, chilly wind. Seongwoo watched Daniel carefully to see if the younger was cold, but he didn’t so much as shiver. In fact, he ran straight to a pile of snow and lay his back down on it, making a snow angel.

“Hyung, come join me!” Daniel called excitedly, unable to stop grinning, and how could Seongwoo say no to that? So he set down the Honeydukes shopping bags against a snowman and went to lay a suitable distance away from Daniel. Then, he began to make his own snow angel as well.

It was still snowing and Seongwoo found himself entranced by the pretty snowflakes that drifted down. Curious to see what it tasted like, he opened his mouth and a snowflake fell on his tongue. He grimaced. Clearly, it did not taste like what he had been expecting.

Then, all of a sudden, someone hit him with a snowball. It hit him on his right leg and he gave a scandalised gasp, quickly getting up from where he had been lying down to catch the perpetrator.

He caught sight of a giggly overgrown puppy hiding behind a pile of snow and nursing a snowball in his hands. “Oh, so this is how you want to play?” Seongwoo shouted at him, starting to make a snowball of his own. “Don’t regret it when I completely defeat you!”

His only reply was another giggle and a surprisingly well-aimed snowball that managed to hit his other leg. Unwilling to let himself continue to get assaulted, Seongwoo threw his snowball at Daniel, who squealed and hid behind his snow pile, causing the snowball to shoot over his head harmlessly.

This continued for some time, with Daniel being the only one who managed to actually hit his opponent. Seongwoo was just horrible at it – so, he decided to cheat his way into winning.

He slowly crept closer and closer to Daniel’s snow pile, going to the side so Daniel wouldn’t be able to see him. He could see Daniel peeking over the top of the snow pile and making a confused puppy face when he couldn’t see Seongwoo anywhere. Seongwoo decided this was the perfect time to carry out his ambush plan.

He snuck up on Daniel quietly, which wasn’t hard seeing how Daniel was still unsuspectingly peering over his snow pile and trying to find Seongwoo. Then, he suddenly surged forward, his hands going to Daniel’s side, and began to tickle the giant puppy.

Daniel shrieked in surprise, turning to face Seongwoo and his hands trying to bat Seongwoo’s hands away from his sides. Seongwoo just smirked playfully as he continued to tickle Daniel, who was squirming and trying to escape his hold but failing miserably.

“Ah, hyung! Stop!” Daniel whined, trying to push Seongwoo away. Seongwoo refused to let up though – this was his revenge.

“Nope, not until you say ‘Ong Seongwoo is the best’ 5 times.”

“Never!” Daniel attempted to put up a brave front but ultimately failed due to how ticklish he was.

“Are you sure about that?” Seongwoo grinned mischeviously.

“Ok, ok I’ll say it! Ong Seongwoo is the best!” Daniel shouted and repeated the last part 5 times. Seongwoo must have been satisfied, because he finally stopped tickling Daniel after he finished his declaration.

“See? That wasn’t so hard now, was it?” Seongwoo couldn’t stop grinning. Daniel looked too tired out to argue with him – his cheeks and ears were red and he was panting for breath.

It was only then that Seongwoo realised the compromising position they were in. Daniel’s back was against the snow pile, and Seongwoo’s arms were on either side of him, caging him in and leaving no room for escape. This up close, Seongwoo could see just how pretty Daniel’s eyes were and the mole dotted underneath his right eye. And, unsurprisingly, his eyes naturally drifted down to Daniel’s lips again.

He could just lean in now and kiss him. Close the distance slowly until their lips met. Daniel didn’t seem like he would protest anyway. He wondered if Daniel’s lips would feel as soft as they looked. What would he taste like? The peaches he always smelled like? Seongwoo’s heart was racing faster and faster, pounding in his chest against his ribcage.

“Can I-“

“Oh? Isn’t that Daniel? YAH! KANG DANEL!” They were interrupted abruptly by Jisung’s shrill shouting. Seongwoo quickly pulled away from Daniel, aware of how their position might make things awkward.

“Jisung hyung!” Daniel replied, stunned, as Jisung came jogging over to them. Sungwoon was somewhere behind him, following along slowly. “What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here?” Jisung repeated Daniel’s question and scoffed. “You know, it’s not only youngsters that can go on a date to Hogsmeade. Sungwoonie and I are on a date like you!”

Sungwoon had finally reached them and now placed his arm around Jisung’s waist casually, with the expertise and familiarity that screamed he had done so a million times before. “Hey, Daniel.” Sungwoon smiled at Daniel, then turned to face Seongwoo. “And you are…?”

Suddenly aware that this seemed very similar to a meeting-the-parents situation, Seongwoo put on his brightest smile. “Hi! I’m Ong Seongwoo. Not Gong Seongwoo, or Hong Seongwoo, or Eung Seongwoo. _Ong_ Seongwoo.”

“Oh? This one is funny, Niel.” Jisung smiled. “Hi, _Ong_ Seongwoo. I’m Yoon Jisung, and this is my boyfriend, Ha Sungwoon.”

“Yah, I can introduce myself!” Sungwoon protested.

“Too bad, I already did it for you.” Jisung stuck his tongue out at Sungwoon. Then, he turned his attention back to Seongwoo. “I’ve been waiting to meet the boy that makes my Daniel-ie blush and stutter every time I so much as bring him up…”

“Jisung hyung!” Daniel whined, hitting Jisung’s arm. “You’re not supposed to tell him about that!”

“Why not?” Jisung retorted. “If I have to put up with all your ramblings then I should get to expose you, right?”

“What’s this about Daniel’s rambling?” Seongwoo smirked impishly. “Tell me more.”

“Oh, didn’t you know? This boy can never shut up about you. It’s always Seongwoo this Seongwoo that, blah blah blah. Neverending rambling.” Jisung paid no mind to Daniel who was now trying to bury himself in the snow pile. “He kept talking about your perfect hair, and how cool you look in your Slytherin robes and- oh! You really do have three moles in the shape of a constellation! I thought Daniel was just exaggerating that part because he was too lovestruck.”

“Hyung~” Daniel whined. His face was impossibly red. “Hyung, stop please~”

“This is your retribution for that one time you woke me up at 2:30 in the morning just to ask me if I thought Seongwoo would like your new pink hair.” Jisung smiled, largely resembling the devil in Daniel’s eyes. “Anyway, me and Sungwoon have to go now so enjoy the rest of your date!”

And then, just as sudden as they had come, Jisung and Sungwoon left. Seongwoo turned to Daniel, the wicked smirk like a permanent fixture on his features.

“So… what’s this about my perfect hair?”

“Nothing! Jisung hyung was just kidding!” Daniel said hurriedly. Seongwoo wasn’t fooled, though.

“Oh really? What’s this then, hm?” He poked Daniel’s right cheek which was scarlet red. “Why are you so flustered if it’s just a joke?”

“I’m not!” Daniel denied even though his whole expression seemed to say otherwise. He chewed on his bottom lip. “Just…”

“Just…?” Seongwoo trailed off encouragingly, curious to hear what excuse Daniel was going to come up with.

“It’s all your fault!” Daniel said hotly. “You just seemed so cool and you had this mysterious aura around you and- and whenever you smiled it was like my whole day had brightened up and I just really liked you, okay!”

After he finished his confession, Daniel couldn’t take the heat flaring up in his cheeks anymore, so he buried his face in a stunned Seongwoo’s shoulder. Automatically, Seongwoo’s arms came up to wrap themselves around Daniel, pulling him closer in Seongwoo’s embrace.

Seongwoo was still processing the information he had just received and his brain was going haywire, but he somehow managed to blurt out, “So you’ve liked me since before I confessed to you?”

“I’ve liked you since my second year at Hogwarts.” Daniel mumbled into the fabric of Seongwoo’s hoodie.

“Wow.” Seongwoo muttered almost inaudibly. “That means we’ve been pining for each other all this time.”

“I know.” Daniel said. Then, after a beat of silence, “I’m sorry, hyung.”

“Wait, why are you sorry?” Seongwoo drew away from Daniel, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Because if I had confessed to you earlier, you wouldn’t have had to suffer so much because of me… You wouldn’t have gotten so drunk you poured out all your feelings into a Howler and mailed it to me, at the very least…” Daniel said, not meeting Seongwoo’s eyes.

“Yah, you can’t just blame something like that on yourself.” Seongwoo chided lightly, his heart aching again at how Daniel blamed himself. “It’s as much my fault, probably more since I chose to drink my feelings instead of manning up and telling you how I felt.”

“Anyway, that’s all over now, so let’s not think about the past and focus on the present instead, okay?” Seongwoo smiled at Daniel who had finally gained enough courage to peek up from where he had been staring at his shoes.

“Okay.” Daniel finally said, smiling back at Seongwoo and making relief blossom in Seongwoo’s chest.

“Then, shall we return to Hogwarts?” Seongwoo asked, reaching down to lace his fingers with Daniel’s. “So we can finally start devouring Honeydukes sweets while cuddling by the fireplace?”

“Mm!” Daniel nodded, excited and still smiling.

They went back to retrieve the Honeydukes bags they had left by the snowman (“It’s a miracle no one took it!”). Then, with their fingers still intertwined, they made their way back to Hogwarts.

(“Yah, Kang Daniel, how was your-“

“Shh, don’t disturb them.”

“Don’t disturb who- Oh. Okay. I think I forgot something in my dorm.”

“They look so cute together, don’t they?”

“Disgustingly cute. Look at how closely snuggled together they are. They couldn’t get any closer if they tried.”

“I sense jealousy~”

“Jealousy? Psh, why would I be jealous? I have a boyfriend, and a very fine one at that.”

“But does he cuddle with you the way Seongwoo is cuddling Daniel right now?”

“… Shut up.”)

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a friend, and I was supposed to finish it before her flight so she could read it on the plane (we had too many Hufflepuff Daniel and Slytherin Seongwoo feels). However, as you can tell, it evolved into a monster. If you've read this far, I truly commend and am thankful to you.
> 
> Mistakes and inaccuracies are inevitable and I only hope there aren't too many in that. 22k+ of vomit. I do realise I probably dragged it on longer than I should have so for that, I apologise.
> 
> Thank you for reading this! Any comments and kudos will be greatly appreciated :)
> 
> Twitter - @takeherhoume  
> CuriousCat - @ongandkang (feel free to drop by with HP!AU prompts)


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